A woman who thought she had a pimple on her nose was diagnosed with skin cancer.<br /><br />Michelle Davis, 52, spotted the red bump in April 2022 and thought it was just a spot until it became “really sore”.<br /><br />She said the pimple would flare up and down but after she squeezed it and it wouldn’t stop bleeding she went to see her doctor.<br /><br />Her doctor immediately thought it was cancer and following a biopsy diagnosed Michelle with basal cell carcinoma – a common form of skin cancer.<br /><br />Michelle underwent surgery to cut the cancer out and had the skin of her nose stretched to cover the hole it left.<br /><br />Now Michelle is recovering from the surgery but won’t need further treatment.<br /><br />Michelle, a account manager, from Orewa, New Zealand, said: “I thought 'what am I doing getting a pimple at 52'.<br /><br />“It will go away – I kept telling myself.<br /><br />“It would flare up and go back down.<br /><br />“I remember squeezing it and nothing coming out.<br /><br />“Then it bled and bled and bled – for like a week.<br /><br />“I was in shock when I found out. I had never heard of basal cell carcinoma.”<br /><br />Michelle first spotted the ‘pimple’ a year ago and would spent time covering it up with concealer.<br /><br />She said: “It was really hard.<br /><br />“Like a volcano under the skin.<br /><br />“I went walking with my girlfriend and it went purple and she pointed it out.<br /><br />“I said ‘it’s just a pimple’.<br /><br />“I was in denial.”<br /><br />Michelle said the spot became “really sore” by January 2023 and she tried to squeeze the spot.<br /><br />She said: “Nothing happened.<br /><br />“Then it bled and bled.<br /><br />“I thought ‘that’s not normal’.”<br /><br />Michelle went to her doctor in February 2023 and was told it looked like skin cancer.<br /><br />A biopsy confirmed she had basal cell carcinoma and she was told she would need surgery to remove the cancer.<br /><br />Michelle underwent a nasal flap reconstruction at Ormiston hospital, Auckland, in April 2023 to remove the cancer and pull the nose skin over the hole.<br /><br />She said: “They cut up my nose in a zig zag. They cut out a crater. There was a hole in the end of my nose.<br /><br />“They then bring the skin down to cover it.”<br /><br />Michelle was left with scaring and different shaped nostrils but said it is healing well.<br />She said: “It’s still healing.<br /><br />“My nostrils are different shapes because they stretched the skin.<br /><br />“The scar tissue is hard. The nerves are numb.<br /><br />“Some people end up losing their nose so thank goodness.”<br /><br />Michelle will be monitored once a year as she said she can be more prone to skin cancer now she has had it once.<br /><br />She wants to raise awareness of the symptom so other people can go get it checked out.<br /><br />“If I’d kept ignoring it, it would have got way bigger.<br /><br />“I might have got to the stage where they couldn’t cut it out.<br /><br />“I honestly thought it was a pimple.<br /><br />“I thought skin cancer was a mole.<br /><br />"Skin block wasn't a thing when I was growing up.<br /><br />"Now it's in my day to day skin care."<br /><br />Michelle has had her stiches out and is now looking after her skin and upping her collagen in take to help with scarring. <br /><br />Michelle said: “At first I thought I’m 52 and single, now I’m going to have this hideous nose.<br /><br />“But it’s been quite empowering.<br /><br />“It’s only skin deep. It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
