Traces on face of Lanarkshire woman who turned to skin cancer after she waited FIVE years to see a doctor

A mother who waited five years to have a small spot on her face checked out because she didn’t want to look useless was shocked to find out she had skin cancer.

Kimberley Connacher, 37, from Carluke, Lanarkshire, burned her left cheek in a fireworks accident a decade ago and has always attributed the small redness on her face to the result.

But shortly after that, another ‘terrible’ tumor started growing on her temple, and so her husband Steven, 40, finally booked an appointment with their doctor last December. – a decision she says saved her life.

The mother of three was stunned when she was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma (BCC), a form of skin cancer that requires immediate surgery.

Kimberley with a much larger facial mark after the scab fell off just before surgery. She feels lucky to be alive, having been worried that she would be called useless if she went to the doctor with a small mark on her face.

Kimberley and her husband Steven, revealing a small mark on Kimberley’s cheek. which she attributed to the fireworks incident a decade earlier

Kimberley recovered from surgery to remove Basal cell carcinoma, which appeared on her cheeks and then temples. Six weeks after the surgery, she is waiting to see if all the cancer has been removed

Now, six weeks after surgery, the psychology student hopes she’ll come to her senses and urges anyone with suspicious lumps and bumps to see a doctor – pointing out that it’s not just moles that need check.

Kimberley says: ‘If you have a spot, mark, pimple or mole that doesn’t look right or won’t go away, consider it. You don’t waste your doctor’s time, you deserve theirs.

‘Especially as parents, I think we put our own needs first. Think about it, if it were your child or a loved one, what advice would you give them?

‘I was assuming it was a burn, I didn’t think it needed time to go to the doctor. Honestly, I think they’ll think I’m useless about a small spot on my face.

‘The surgeon told me she was looking forward to seeing this cancer on someone aged 65 and over, not my age. So even if you’re young – check it out. ‘

Kimberley and her husband Steven, whom she thanks for saving her life, made a doctor’s appointment.

Kimberley in a photo shows a small mark on her cheek when she looks very innocent. She always thought that it was a vestige left by the fireworks incident.

Kimberely recalls in November 2012, someone lit a box of fireworks nearby and then fell – forcing her to use her torso to protect her youngest child.

She said: ‘I got burns on my face, just a little bit, on the right side, on my cheek. I’ve always assumed the marks on my face were from burns.

‘But I recently reviewed the images and noticed the trail was actually circa 2016, so it couldn’t have been from the night of the fireworks. The burn must have healed and this new one also appeared about five years ago.

‘The mark on my cheek looks like a red mark. It goes through a cycle of bleeding, crusting, the scab falling off and then bleeding more. ‘

Kimberley shows a second facial nodule (Left) which was subsequently diagnosed as metastatic cancer. And after surgery (right).

Kimberley said she used to use factor 20 sunscreen when she was at home in Scotland and also brought sunscreen and a hat during her annual overseas holidays to Gran Canaria.

But she used the tanning bed in 2019 once a week for a total of four months to sunbathe before going on vacation.

‘Eight months ago I noticed another lump growing on the temple of my head. It looks horrible with a red line going through it,’ she added.

‘I tried to turn it on, tried the dot ice cream, but I couldn’t get it to grow. I noticed people were looking at it. And so my husband told me he was going to make an appointment with the doctor because he could see it was driving me down.

‘I think I’ll keep postponing it if my husband doesn’t show up for the appointment. I’m glad he did because it will only spread. I credit him for saving my life. ‘

The part-time student said her civil servant husband sent doctors pictures of areas of concern in December, before they called her in for an appointment, after which she was transferred to the hospital. .

Kimberley then had a consultation with the plastic surgery team in January and was diagnosed with BCC and was told what she thought was an abscess was actually where the cancer had spread.

Kimberley is recovering with a wound that is slowly healing from surgery. She says she is now very conscious of any small marks appearing on her face, worried that more cancerous spots have appeared.

Kimberley after the surgery and is now using her social media to urge anyone else to see a doctor if they have any small bumps or pimples, don’t delay.

She then had almost immediate surgery to remove the mark on her cheeks and the excess tumor on her head with a healthy margin of skin, and a third area above the tumor that looked like dry skin was also regenerated. set.

The mother of Katie, 18, David, 15, and Andrew, 12, said she is still recovering from the procedures and is waiting to be told about the long-term results.

Kimberley with husband Steven and their three children Katie (right), Andrew and David (left). As a parent, Kimberley feels she sometimes neglects her health but urges people to check for anything suspicious on their bodies.

Kimberley said: ‘Every time I see one spot, I worry it might be another. I’m covered in freckles and it’s hard to keep track of what’s new, old, and different. I don’t think I’ll ever sit in direct sunlight again, I’ll definitely sit in the shade.

‘I currently have a scar on my face and I know it will heal in time. But I feel it’s a reminder of these terrible times and that I can’t be invincible to things my family and I only really see on TV. If an ad about cancer appeared on TV now, people would look at me. Before that, we didn’t really think about it.

‘It makes me appreciate the people in my life more. My friends and family have shown so much support and love. Everyone gets nervous and I think as a parent you forget that people really care about you. ‘

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