A MUM has told how her daughter saved her life after a simple itch turned out to be SKIN CANCER.
Gill Liiv-Rochester began scratching her back repeatedly but did not know there was a mole on her skin.
The mum-of-two from County Durham didn’t think much of the niggling spot on her back and initially ignored the issue.
But daughter Emme, 13, became more and more concerned about her mums incessant scratching and urged her to make doctor’s appointment to find out what was going on.
Gill went along to the doctors who later discovered two severe and aggressive malignant melanomas where she had been scratching.
The 36-year-old told ChronicleLive : “Looking back now I didn’t realise how exhausted I was and my skin was really dry.
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“I thought it would be nothing or something very minor.
“When I went to the doctors, they asked how long I had had the mole on my shoulder but I had no idea I had one there.”
Docs warned Gill had between “six to eight weeks” before the cancer would spread to her organs.
The midweek horror then became a whirlwind few days and by the following Monday Gill was in the operating theatre.
Luckily the mum caught the Stage One cancer early and is now making a recovery, but her ordeal is not over yet.
She said: “With skin cancer, a lot of people think it’s not that serious and you just get it removed and that’s it, but it’s not that at all.
“I’m still recovering from another biopsy I had but I’m getting there.”
Gill now wants to raise awareness about the dangers of skin cancer to help clear up myths surrounding the deadly disease.
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She added: “People ask me whether they should get a mole checked out and I would always say to just get it checked out.
“It could be nothing but it may be something.”
