‘Harmless’ spot on mum’s nose turned out to be skin cancer eating away at flesh

A mum has put out an urgent warning to the public after a ‘harmless’ spot on her nose turned out to be skin cancer that was eating away at her flesh.

Mandy Pollard, 37, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, was told she’d lose her nose in the next ten years if she didn’t get treatment.

After undergoing a skin graft, she says she was left looking like ‘someone had put out a cigarette on the end of her nose’.

The office manager has opened up about her ordeal to warn people of the danger of skin cancer, reminding others that you don’t have to be a sun worshiper to get it.

The mum of two boys, Alfie, 7, and Harry, 3, first noticed the spot on her nose around two years ago but said she ‘didn’t think much about it’ and didn’t go to the doctors for a long time.

She said: ‘It was probably around two years ago that I had a spot on the end of my nose but it kept coming and going so I didn’t really think much about it.

‘Then it just started to change, it got bigger, it was paper thin. I would wake up in the night and my partner would say: ‘Your nose is bleeding.’

‘My mum had a blemish on her arm that she had removed because it was skin cancer. I thought maybe I should get it looked at.

‘I still didn’t go, I waited until I was next at the doctors and I just mentioned there was a blemish on my nose.’

After being referred to a dermatologist and plastic surgeon, Mandy was told she needed a skin graft immediately.

The mother, who was told her cancer was due to sun damage, said: ‘It was like something from the movies.

‘I asked him what if we just leave it and he said if you don’t get this done, it’s going to eat away at your nose and in the next ten years you’ll be back sitting in that chair being told you have to have your whole nose taken off.

‘I really thought it was just dry skin and that I would just be given some cream for it.’

On November 5, doctor sewed a sponge into Mandy’s nose to prevent a blood clot and took a skin graft from the side of her face to to cover the hole that the skin cancer had left on her nose.

However, the dark bloody circle – named ‘a bit of a dog’s dinner’ by Mandy’s surgeon – has left her so ’embarrassed’, she won’t leave the house until it heals.

Mandy, who has been told her nose could take up to a year to fully heal, said: ‘Walking through the hospital after my sponge was taken off, I was so embarrassed, people didn’t stare but they kind of glanced and then quickly looked away.

‘A little girl looked frightened of me. The thing that really gets me is my little boy Alfie.

‘He was really shocked when he saw me with the sponge and he didn’t want to give me a cuddle.

‘Now the sponge is off I think it looks worse because it’s quite bloody so I’m nervous to see his reaction.’

She added: ‘People might think I’m vain for not wanting to go out of my house looking like this but my confidence has just shattered.’

The office manager’s experience has pushed her to warn others to take care of their skin in the sun.

Mandy, who always wears sun cream and holidays in the UK, said: ‘I just wanted to raise awareness that this can happen to anyone.

‘I didn’t worship the sun, I would rather stick some fake tan on than sit out in it.

‘When I’m on holiday I always put sun cream on but I usually just put SPF foundation on my face.

‘I don’t really go on holiday a lot – I usually holiday in the UK.

‘Even if it helps one 13-year-old who doesn’t want to wear sun cream on holiday then it’s worth it.’