Liz's Skin Cancer Story
“I truly believe that being aware of and proactive about skin changes has saved me from the worst-case scenario that my dad went through with skin cancer.”
Liz Farrell, 46, from Kilkenny noticed some small red bumps appearing on her forehead in May 2021. Around the same time, her father was living with advanced skin cancer which he later passed away from. Liz’s father was an outdoor worker, and seeing what her father went through motivated Liz to document and check the skin changes she noticed.
“Because of my dad’s skin cancer – his was so severe that he ended up dying from it – I decided to keep an eye on the spots,” says Liz. “I went to my GP who referred me to a dermatologist and they removed the spots. It turned out that I had basal cell and squamous cell cancer removed from either side of my forehead. It was a shock.
“Dad’s skin cancer was so severe, it was an eye-opener. Only for my daddy, I wouldn’t have been so vigilant about my skin, and it could’ve been a worst-case scenario for me.”
After this experience, Liz continued to pay close attention to her skin and in 2023 noticed another change that she decided to get checked and, more recently, a mole on her arm.
“I noticed red spots appeared on my forehead where they’d been before,” says Liz, who works as an early years educator. “They were very small spots with a rough texture, and I noticed they were changing. They were removed and they were pre-cancerous, so I was treated with a chemo cream to be on the safe side.
“There was also a mole on my shoulder that I’d had all my life, but I noticed it started to change shape, and it got bumpier – that was removed last February and was pre-cancerous.
“They were all caught at an early stage. I’m very lucky, the only reason I’ve been so vigilant about my skin changes is because I saw what my dad went through with his skin cancer, and I was afraid that if I ignored anything it would grow to that extent.”
Reflecting on her experience, Liz says she believes her skin cancer may be linked to sunburn she experienced as a child, as sunburn during childhood can increase your risk of developing skin cancer in later years.
“I’m very pale, I was outdoors all the time as a child and using sunscreen wouldn’t have been as regimented then as it is now, so I definitely got sunburnt a few times,” she says.
“My son is 20, and I’m always drumming into him the importance of wearing sunscreen, even on cloudy or overcast days. I wear sunscreen throughout the year now, and I’m cautious about being out in the sun.”
Liz is very proactive about her health as she was also diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was 16 years old, so knows the importance of getting any health concerns checked.
“I have eight siblings, and I was the first person in my family to have any type of cancer,” she says. “I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1996 when I was 16. I had pain in my sides, but it felt more like a kidney infection than anything gynaecological.
“Then it reached a point where I couldn’t sleep because the pain was so bad and I had a lump on my side. My dad brought me to hospital, and they found the cancer when they did a CAT scan. I had my right ovarian tube removed and had six months of chemotherapy.”
Liz is now doing well and is sharing her story to encourage people to pay attention to any skin changes they notice and to document them.
“My advice is to document any skin changes you notice and take pictures of them. My skin changes were small, but I took photos so I was able to document how rapidly they were changing and I could see the changes happening."
