Duchess of York melanoma scare

Every now and then, we hear of a famous person being diagnosed with skin cancer and lots of articles appear, not always very well informed. It specially gets up my nose that while articles often include descriptions of what to look out for, for example lesions that bleed, break the ABCD rule, etc, we seldom see many useful pictures of melanomas. There are plenty in the public realm, for example on this blog. I’d let them have some images for free if they asked nicely.

The most recent celebrity melanoma patient is Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson, Duchess of York and ex-wife of Prince Andrew (*). I hope she will be among the 90% of melanoma patients who are cured through early enough diagnosis: I have no ghoulish interest, but it is legitimate to comment on what is in the public realm.

Popular British newspapers have posted extensive discussions about Sarah Ferguson’s melanoma recently, such as here in The Daily Mail and again in The Sun. In both articles, there are multiple colour photos of the lady in question and other members of the Royal Family, but no pictures of melanomas! What a wasted opportunity!

I have read several on line pieces about the Duchess of York’s melanoma diagnosis, and didn’t think much of the informational content of any of them. It will be interesting to see if the publicity leads to more people seeking advice about funny looking moles. Anyway, I was sorting out some old BJDs a few days back and came across this article from last April about false beliefs and misguided advocacy around sun protection for skin cancer prevention (see link) which I thought was a good bit of writing not just about sun protection but misinformation in general.

False information (fake news) is swallowed because, according to the article, we tend to trust sources that appear ‘attractive, powerful and similar to ourselves.‘ It is surely better to try to find sources which are evidence based and balanced, since many journalists just copy from other journalists, who may not be so well informed as they would like us to think. And the issues sometimes can’t be simplified beyond a certain point.

There has been a lot in the news lately about the British Royal Family’s health issues. Since King Charles has had some prostate trouble recently, enquiries to the National Health Service web page about prostate disease has increased greatly. It is possible that the Duchess of York’s melanoma diagnosis may drive further interest in getting skin checks. But the NHS does not routinely offer skin checks, and indeed British GPs are seldom trained enough to do them very well. Which is a good time to mention the Skin Cancer Symposium’s excellent 2 day skin lesion diagnostics conference in Manchester this summer. Early bird price is pretty good value at just £700 which will include a free copy of Cliff Rosendahl’s excellent book which he will be there to sign.

(*) Prince Andrew is currently disgraced and not performing royal duties following accusations of sexual impropriety around the Jeffrey Epstein revelations. I have no more to say here about that or other British Royalty issues.