Comedian Katherine Ryan reveals second cancer diagnosis
By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Entertainment Reporter
Comedian Katherine Ryan has revealed she has been diagnosed with cancer for a second time after she felt suspicious of a mole on her arm.
The 41-year-old said she initially had her suspicions of melanoma given the all-clear by a doctor who had worked in the NHS, before going on to a private clinic, which also dismissed her claims, before a test revealed the mole was cancerous.
Ryan was previously diagnosed with stage two melanoma in her 20s, after finding an irregular mole on her leg, which was removed.
@kathbumMelanoma!!!♬ original sound – Katherine Ryan
Speaking about her recent diagnosis on her Telling Everybody Everything podcast, she explained: “The only reason that they agreed to remove it was because I went to a fancy, private place in South Kensington, and I paid them a grand.
“I don’t believe that on the NHS they ever would have removed this mole, because I don’t know how long ago, I’m looking through my emails to find out how long ago, I think six to eight months ago, I went to another private clinic and gave them £300 for a seven minute consultation.
“I was in that room for seven minutes, and the doctor was like, ‘I do melanoma on the NHS, it’s all I do, I know all about skin cancer, I’m the man, this is not melanoma, goodbye.
“He was really nice to me, and he gave me the news that I wanted, I think it’s really easy to take a diagnosis of you’re healthy and just walk away.
“But the mole kept changing, and I know a lot about melanoma.
“I just felt like 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 a bigger piece of 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 then if it comes back with anything, if there’s any borders that we missed, then we’ll do the deeper cut’.
“And I was like, ‘just do the deeper cut now, like just do it.
“He’s like, ‘well, it’s half the price for you, and you don’t need the deeper cut, let’s just take it off and we’ll test it.
“And I thought, ‘alright, we’ll take it off and we’ll test it fine’.
“So he rang me today, and it did come back melanoma, and he said, ‘it’s early melanoma’.
“And he was shocked, he’s like, ‘it doesn’t look like melanoma, but it is melanoma’.”
The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year star went on to say that the doctor then made an appointment to remove the mole completely.
Ryan later confirmed she had the mole removed in a post on TikTok, in which she showed pictures of it and urged others to get their moles checked.
The NHS says melanoma is a type of skin cancer, which can spread to other areas of the body, it says a new mole or a change in an existing mole can be a symptom of the condition.
The health authority says melanoma moles are often an uneven shape with a mix of two or more colours, and says moles which are sore, bleeding, itchy or crusty could be cancerous.
It says the main cause of melanoma is ultraviolet light, which comes from the sun and is used in sunbeds.