Countdown star Susie Dent has opened up on a terrifying cancer scare that arose after a TV make-up artist spotted a worrying mark under her eye and encouraged her to get it checked out.
The 58-year old lexicographer was later diagnosed with skin cancer by a doctor – a year after the mark first appeared.
Susie, who has appeared in the Channel 4 show's Dictionary Corner since 1992, detailed her ordeal to Virgin Radio's Chris Evans, who was recently given the all-clear from cancer himself.
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Susie began: "I had one under my eye, a few years ago now. And it just felt like a little cut."
She continued: "So it was a kind of linear one and just wouldn’t heal. And I just kept putting lots of different cream on it. So, I had it for too long. I had it for about a year.
"My GP said, 'I’m going to say the word carcinoma, but don’t panic'. And then they took it off, they kind of excised it. So, I’ve got a bit of a kind of scar under my eye.
"This one doesn’t spread, so we were really lucky. I genuinely just thought, 'I have cut my eye', and I didn’t think about it from one week to the next.
"And it was my makeup artist that said, 'I think you should get that checked out'."
There are two types of carcinoma, according to the NHS – basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. The former usually appears as a small, shiny pink or pearly-white lump with a translucent or waxy appearance. It can also look like a red, scaly patch and there's sometimes some brown or black pigment within the patch. It does not usually spread to other parts of the body.
The latter, meanwhile, appears as a firm pink lump with a rough or crusted surface, which often feels tender when touched, bleeds easily and may develop into an ulcer. There's a very small risk of it spreading to other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes.
Susie advises: "Just beware, because they don’t always look like moles or things that you would expect, and they can just look like little cuts."
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Last week radio star Chris, 57, told his listeners he was officially all-clear just eight weeks after his initial diagnosis. He said he received the news in an email, which read: "I have forwarded the pathology report. It is excellent news. There is no residual disease. You have the all-clear."
Chris added: "I had a phone conversation with my dermatologist, and she told me that, obviously, the freckle that had moved, metastasised, was malignant, because the biopsy had come back, and that I would need treatment, and would have to have it removed. So we did, and that was last Thursday.
"And so, at quarter-to-four last Thursday, I had cancer and at quarter-to-five, I didn't. And I just found that out last night. And that's because time is your biggest weapon against it, if you have an abundance of it, and its biggest weapon against you if you have a lack of it."
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