Dick Durham's blog
Web log entry dated 7 February 2008
Melanoma of Essex
When the sun has got his hat on make sure you have too. After 44 years of sailing I noticed a black lesion creeping across my right temple beneath the hairline. It didn't bleed or change shape, nor did it itch, but it did scab up and I absent-mindedly scratched off the top.
That constituted enough of a change to take advice and my GP the excellent Dr Chaturvedi stabbed me with a local jab before cutting out the offending lump: it felt like the skin of an orange being cut round with a serrated knife.
Straight in the pot went the gobbet of flesh. 'If it's manky you'll hear straight away,' the nurse gave it to me straight, before posting the pot to the local hospital.
The thing is I always wear a hat, but perhaps I've not taken enough notice of the reflected light off the surface of the sea: so get bathed in cream. You have been warned.
Dick Durham
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