Hello - this is my first post here.

[Jamima]

I was referred for a skin biopsy on 19/7/24 and told it didn’t look worrying so the results might take some time. Ok, I thought, they know best. I called the consultant’s secretary last Thursday as the lesion is now much worse than when they biopsied it. She wasn’t there naturally but returned my call saying a letter had just been signed and that I had a squamous cell carcinoma and would be prescribed cream to treat it. And that was it, nothing else, no here’s what to expect/what to do in future, just, you’ve got skin cancer, here’s some cream. Is this what the NHS is now? I know they’re struggling, but this seems beyond scant when there’s ‘cancer’ in the diagnosis.

I have an update which I’ll post separately.

[SkcinHQ Partner]

Hi Jamima,

I am so sorry to learn of your SCC diagnosis. Please pop along to our web site where you can find our more about the SCC and how they are treated. The good news is this type of cancer is not typically life threatening and typically does not metastasise. However we are very aware such diagnosis can be shock and those that do require surgery or a harsh topical treatment still face anxiety and concerns which is often dismissed by primary care.

Sadly dermatology services with the NHS are under immense pressure and the cases of skin cancer particularly non melanoma skin cancer are raising rapidly with over 250k cases reported a year. Non melanoma is largely over looked and the disease does not have the profile if should have. Hence, our work as a charity to tackle this. Non melanoma skin cancer is 90% preventable so we believe that educational intervention is the key to tackling this public health concern. Our web site details more about our solutions to the problem. skcin.org

We wish you well with your outcome and treatment plan and hope you concerns are addressed and do reach out if you need any further help.

Team Skcin