A New Zealand woman who thought she had a pimple on her nose said it was actually a very common form of skin cancer.
Now she’s trying to raise awareness about the warning signs she ignored.
Michelle Davis said she discovered a red bump on her nose in April 2022 — initially dismissing it as nothing important.
“I thought, ‘What am I doing getting a pimple at 52?'” Davis recalled to SWNS. “It will go away, I kept telling myself.”
The account manager spent months using concealer to hide the bump in the hopes it would eventually disappear.
But she said it turned purple and drew the attention of her girlfriend.
“I said, ‘It’s just a pimple,'” defended Davis. “I was in denial.”
It wasn’t until January 2023, after the spot had become “really sore” and felt “like a volcano under the skin,” that Davis tried to squeeze it.
“Nothing happened,” she said. “Then it bled and bled.”
Davis said she knew immediately that something was wrong, but it was another month before she finally saw her doctor.
She was shocked to learn that she had been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma. She said she was told that surgery was needed to remove the cancer from her nose.
According to the Mayo Clinic, basal cell carcinoma can appear in places that are often exposed to ultraviolet light, such as the neck or head.
They usually look like skin-colored bumps or brown and black lesions on the skin.
An estimated 3.6 million cases of basal cell carcinoma are diagnosed every year in the US, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
In April 2023 — a year after the bump was discovered — Davis underwent nasal flap surgery to remove cancerous cells.
“They cut up my nose in a zig-zag. They cut out a crater. There was a hole in the end of my nose,” Davis explained, adding that the doctors pulled skin from the unaffected portion of her nose to cover the incision.
Davis revealed that her nostrils are now different sizes, but says she is humbled by the fact that she was one of the lucky few who didn’t have her entire nose removed.
Despite the hardened scar tissue, the New Zealander claims the wound is “healing nicely.”
She is monitored monthly since she is more prone to developing skin cancer again.
Davis hopes her story encourages others to get unusual bumps and blemishes checked out by medical professionals.
“If I’d kept ignoring it, it would have got way bigger,” she reasoned. “I might have got to the stage where they couldn’t cut it out.”
“I honestly thought it was a pimple,” Davis continued. “I thought skin cancer was a mole.”
Davis says sunblock has now become a major part of her daily routine.
“Skin block wasn’t a thing when I was growing up,” she explained. “Now it’s in my day-to-day skin care.”
Though shy about it at first, Davis is now proud of her scar. She says she is doing everything she can to make it heal faster.
“At first I thought, I’m 52 and single, now I’m going to have this hideous nose,” she remarked. “But it’s been quite empowering, and it’s only skin deep.”
“It’s what’s on the inside that counts,” concluded Davis.