A 25-year-old woman who spotted a pen mark on her ear was left devastated after her life "completely crumbled" following shock revelations.
Chloe French, from Berwick, was working in a coffee shop when a customer noticed what appeared to be a pen mark behind her ear.
After medical checks Chloe was diagnosed with stage one melanoma. She had a piece of her ear removed during surgery, and at one point was given the all clear by doctors.
But she later experienced a pain in her side , which she initially thought was a herniated disc in her back.
However she was then told that a tumour in her pelvis was the cause of the pain.
Speaking to ITV Tyne Tees she said: "There was a tumour in my pelvis."
She added: "There was another tumour in my femur. There was loads of little tumours, all over my body. They found a brain tumour, which just wasn't great."
After further surgery and radiotherapy, Chloe is now living with living with stage four melanoma, which cannot be cured.
She is now keen to highlight skin cancer awareness, particularly amongst younger people.
She said: "I just want people to know if you've got a mole or an abrasion on your skin it just takes two minutes to take to the doctors and say 'I don't know what this is' and catch it early.
She is now working closely with Washington based charity Melanoma Me.
Chloe said she now had a new perspective on life since her diagnosis.
She said: "Life is too short - so go on the holiday, move house, move away - just do it,
"If I've helped one person then I've done my job."
When found early, skin cancer can often be treated successfully. How skin cancer is treated depends on a few factors.
Types of treatment can depend on the type of skin cancer, how far it's spread, where the cancer is and what stage it’s at.
The main treatment for skin cancer is surgery to remove it from the affected area.
Usually, the surgery carried out is minor and carried out under local anaesthetic.
At present, Cancer Research UK estimates that around 16,700 Brits are diagnosed with melanoma on an annual basis, which works out to around 46 cases per day.
Source: The Sun (thesun.co.uk)
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