Katherine Ryan has been diagnosed with cancer for the second time in her life.
The 41-year-old Canadian comedian revealed the news on her Telling Everybody Everything podcast, explaining that she was originally concerned about a mole on her arm but was told by a doctor that it was nothing to worry about.
She then paid £1,000 to have it removed at a “fancy private place in South Kensington”.
The TV star admitted that she wasn’t confident the NHS would remove it for her, but said she also faced challenges when it came to private healthcare: Ryan spent £300 on a seven-minute consultation and was incorrectly told the mole was not cancerous.
She said: “He gave me the news that I wanted! I think it’s really easy to take a diagnosis of you’re healthy and walk away, you go, ‘Great, I’m healthy’ and you don’t think about it again because that is the easiest news.
“But the mole kept changing. I know a lot about melanoma. I had a melanoma as a very young woman, stage two on my leg, and I’ve spoken about that before.
Ryan continued: “Even that didn’t look traditionally like melanoma to me. Fair enough, it had some discolouration and asymmetry and a bit of black and red. It was a flat mole, not that bad and not that big, but it was stage two melanoma so that was bad.
“I had to have full general anaesthetic and surgery to have a golf-ball size of my leg because…if you know about melanoma, you know it’s a deadly form of skin cancer and it spreads quickly.”
Ryan added: “I just thought that this mole wasn’t right. It’s on my arm. I showed pictures of it on my social media. I went in and I wanted the doctor to remove it and stitch it up in a straight line. But even when he looked at it, he was like, ‘not melanoma, totally fine, I will do the shave and send it away for histology and if there’s any borders that we missed, then we will do the deeper cut’.”
An overwhelming 77 per cent of people would not recognise signs of a melanoma – a malignant skin cancer tumour – despite the majority of Britons worrying about skin cancer, a 2023 study by the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) found.
There are two types of skin cancer; melanoma, the deadliest form of which around 13,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the UK, and non-melanoma, of which there are more than 100,000 new cases diagnosed every year.
The risk of melanoma is doubled if a person has had five or more sunburns at any age, the Skin Care Foundation states, but adds that experiencing just one blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person’s chances of developing a melanoma later in life.
Non-melanoma comes in two most common forms: basal cell carcinoma, which accounts for about 75 per cent of skin cancers, and squamous cell carcinoma, which accounts for about 20 per cent. It is mainly caused by overexposure to UV light.
After trusting her instincts, Ryan’s doctor confirmed after tests that the mark was indeed melanoma and would require further surgery.
Ryan continued: “He rang me today and it did come back as melanoma. Early melanoma. The doctor was shocked and told me I need to go back.
“It just feels crazy to me, like what could have happened if I hadn’t been my own advocate – and I will continue to be my own advocate. If I hadn’t pushed, if I had taken that good answer the first time and walked away, then I would have had melanoma just growing and spreading in my arm. And I would say, ‘Oh no, the doctor says it’s fine, it’s fine,’ and god knows how far that would have gone.”
It’s the second time Ryan has fought the disease, having been diagnosed with Stage 2 cancer in 2004.
Speaking on the subject previously she said: “The cancer wasn’t that serious. It wasn’t into my lymph nodes, I didn’t have to have chemotherapy.
“It did recur, but it was easily dealt with. I feel like I was really lucky just to get that lesson, that little smack on the arse of “Hey, wait a minute. Listen to your body, here.”’
Here is how to check for possible signs of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer:
Melanoma:
The NHS states the first signs of a melanoma is often a new mole, or the change in appearance of an existing mole.
Moles are usually round or oval, with a smooth edge, which is not bigger than 6mm in diameter. Any change in size, shape, or colour, any bleeding, crustiness or itchiness, or how painful a mole is should be shown to a doctor.
The NHS has an ABCDE checklist to help people tell the difference between a normal mole and a melanoma:
Asymmetrical – melanomas have two very different halves and are an irregular shape.
Border – melanomas have a notched or ragged border.
Colours – melanomas will be a mix of two or more colours.
Diameter – melanomas are larger than 6mm (1/4 inch) in diameter.
Enlargement or elevation – a mole that changes size over time is more likely to be a melanoma.
Non-melanoma:
Non-melanoma usually appears as a lump or discoloured patch of skin that does not heal. If a person experiences on of these patches that do not heal after four weeks, they should see their GP.
Signs of Basal cell carcinoma can look like a small red or pink lump, though it can also appear as a pearly-white or waxy-looking lump, or it can also appear as a red or scaly patch of skin.
The lump, whether pink or white, will grow slowly and can become crusty or bleed, or become a painless ulcer.
Signs of Squamous cell carcinoma are the appearance of a firm pink lump. This lump could have a flat, scaly or crusted surface, often bleeds easily and feels tender to touch and can also become a painless ulcer.