DR MAX PEMBERTON: I almost missed my own skin cancer - here's EXACTLY what you need to look out for (and no, it's not just moles or crusty skin patches)

We all know the drill when it comes to checking our moles. Keep an eye on them, if one changes shape, colour or size, or grows a ragged edge, get it looked at. It’s sound advice that saves lives. But it leaves a blind spot that nearly cost me dear. Here’s the thing: skin cancer doesn’t always show up as a dark, changing mole – sometimes it’s red, and almost nobody tells you that. A while back I noticed a small mark on my cheekbone, only a few millimetres across, faintly red, the kind of thing you’d never glance at twice. I’d had something like it before, a spot no bigger than a grain of rice that worried me enough to get checked and it turned out to be nothing. So I told myself this was the same. It wasn’t. It got bigger, developed a slightly raised patch and occasionally bled, but still I waved off concern from friends. Yet, with a family history of skin cancer behind me, at the back of my mind I knew that I ought to get it seen. When I finally did, that autumn, the dermatologist took one look and confirmed what part of me had already guessed. A squamous cell carcinoma. It would need surgery. It was what she said next that’s stayed with me. In fair-skinned people like me, she explained, skin cancer often looks nothing like the textbook mole. It can be a red mark. A scaly patch. A small sore that scabs and bleeds and never quite heals. Watch for those, she told me, as well as for moles that change. I sat there stunned. I’d spent years as a doctor, I’d even worked in cancer care, and not once had anyone told me this. Here’s the thing: skin cancer doesn’t always show up as a dark, changing mole – sometimes it’s red, and almost nobody tells you that Dr Max Pemberton noticed a small mark on his cheekbone which got bigger and developed a slightly raised patch. Eventually he saw a dermatologist, who identified it as a squamous cell carcinoma Caught early, she said, this kind of skin cancer type has a cure rate of about 90 per cent. Although mine hadn’t been caught early due to my daft assumption that something red couldn’t be dangerous, I got away with it and have just a couple of small scars now, from removal, that you’d be hard pushed to notice. I was extremely lucky and I learnt my lesson: if you have a mark anywhere on your body that doesn’t look quite right then do get it investigated and don’t dismiss it, as I did, because it doesn’t fit the description of skin cancer that’s been drummed into us. Even melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, doesn’t always show up dark. A small number of these cancers carry little or no pigment, so they turn up pink or red rather than brown or black, which makes them some of the easiest of all to miss. They get taken for a harmless pimple, a scar, a patch of dry skin by patients and, I’m sorry to say, sometimes by doctors too. Then there is another myth I’d love to see the back of – that skin cancer is a problem that only affects fair-skinned people and those that burn easily in the sun. People with darker skin often assume they’re safe. They’re not. Bob Marley died of skin cancer at just 36. It started as a dark mark under his toenail, which he’s said to have put down to a football injury. Reggae superstar Bob Marley died of skin cancer at just 36 Dr Max recommends using an SPF cream factor 30 or higher to reduce risk of skin cancer In fact it was a melanoma, a type of skin cancer that kills over 2,000 people in the UK every year. By the time anyone took it seriously it had spread. There’s a lot to take from that. Skin cancer can crop up in places the sun barely reaches, the soles of the feet, the palms, under the nails. The type Marley had isn’t caused by sun damage at all, which is exactly why it gets missed. Nobody thinks to look there. And being caught late, as his was, is what turns a cancer you could have treated into one that kills you. Melanoma is at a record high here, with about 20,000 people diagnosed every year, and Cancer Research UK expects that to climb to 26,500 a year by 2040 as our summers grow hotter. The more common non-melanoma skin cancers, the sort I had, account for more than 150,000 cases a year, and rates have risen more than two and a half times since the early 1990s. The good news, and there is some, is that most of these cancers are preventable, because most are caused by ultraviolet light from the sun and from sunbeds. So here’s what I wish I’d been told sooner. Yes, keep an eye on your moles but, at the same time, watch out for anything red, scaly or crusted that lingers more than a few weeks, any sore that bleeds and won’t heal, any patch that’s simply appeared and won’t budge. Check the places you forget, behind the ears, the scalp, the soles, under the nails. Do this regardless of your skin colour. Use an SPF cream (factor 30 or higher) stay off sunbeds and if something is there, and a small voice is nagging you to get it seen, listen to it. Make that appointment. I left mine far too long and I’m someone who really should have known better. Things could have worked out very differently for me. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. 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