'The beautician's advice was complete BS. I learned that the hard way'

A dad has urged others to get any abnormal moles checked out after a mark on his back turned out to be something sinister.

Matt Heywood was brushing his teeth when his wife noticed a pink mole on his back had changed colour in late 2020.

The lesion, which was normally pink and fleshy, had turned brown and doubled to the size of a 5p coin.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, Matt was unable to see a doctor and decided to wait until services returned to normal.

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The dad-of-two, who lives in Buxton, finally sent a photo of his mole to a GP in early 2021 and received a call back within hours.

The medic said the mark looked suspicious and referred him to see a dermatologist.

The dermatologist took one look at his mole and knew it was melanoma – later diagnosing him with skin cancer.

“It was in a blind spot for me and something I couldn’t really see unless I put myself in an awkward position,” the kitchen designer told the Manchester Evening News. “It was out of sight, out of mind.

“It wasn’t that I was turning a blind eye or being reckless, it was very much Covid and the pandemic. I had every intention of going to the doctor, but it was too hard.

“I’d ring the doctor and end up 16th in the queue. I never got through. I thought, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow,’ but you never do.”

Matt learned his melanoma, a type of skin cancer caused by ultraviolet light that can spread to other areas of the body, was at stage two.

Thankfully, it had been confined to the mole and the cancer could be removed.

Following the procedure, staff at The Christie Hospital advised Matt to have another operation to inject dye around the lesion to see