{"id":1266,"date":"2026-07-11T02:08:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2026-07-11T02:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:08:38","slug":"mums-pimple-led-to-terrifying-ordeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/11\/1266\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum\u2019s \u2018pimple\u2019 led to terrifying ordeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mum has revealed how what she thought was an innocent pimple led to her getting a chunk of her ear cut out.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Cook, 46, had always been vigilant about sun safety \u2014 particularly as a mum to two children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got two kids who are in Nippers, so we were always wearing hats, sunscreen and long sleeve shirts. I\u2019ve been pretty regular with my skin checks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But two years ago she discovered what she thought was a small, white pimple when she was pulling her hair back. She asked a friend to have a look. Her friend was suspicious and so she went to the GP.<\/p>\n

Immediately, her doctor realised it was a basal cell carcinoma (BCC), which is a type of skin cancer. Ms Cook was sent to a plastic surgeon, and it was surgically removed. Doctors used a skin graft, taken from behind her ear, to repair the chunk that was pulled out.<\/p>\n

It was described as a \u201cvery nasty\u201d form of BCC. It took a month to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was freaking out because there was a chunk out of my ear, so I rang the surgeon freaking out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But it healed and barely left a scar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went back for the results, it turned out it wasn\u2019t an ordinary BCC but an infiltrative BCC,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This meant every three months she needed to get checked because the possibility of needing radiotherapy was very real. This lasted for a year.<\/p>\n

Last week, she got the official all clear. A spot had appeared on her nose, but a biopsy labelled it all clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so vigilant now, I carry sunscreen in my car,\u201d she said, pointing out the ear she\u2019d found the cancer in was on her driver\u2019s side window.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got to the point where I was wondering if I should wear a hat in the car. I was so paranoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Australia is the number one country in the world for skin cancer \u2014 and Ms Cook is sharing her story as she believes sometimes Aussies can be a bit blas\u00e9 about it. Around 2000 Australians die from skin cancer every year.<\/p>\n

She is advocating for everyone to be more vigilant about sun safety and skin checks \u2014 even in the midst of winter. She also called for more bulk billing skin check clinics to be available.<\/p>\n

Doctor Ludi Ge, a dermatologist at Moshy, said that all-year round skin protection is important.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn winter UV levels can reach 3 or higher, which is sufficient to cause skin damage and photo ageing, while the cumulative effect of daily exposure, even in cooler months, increases the risk of skin cancer,\u201d said Dr Ge.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople often associate sunburn with heat, but UV rays penetrate clouds and can harm the skin regardless of temperature, even when driving in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSkin cancers can appear in different forms including lesions like a mole or scab that won\u2019t heal, bleeding on light contact, changes in size and colour and flat moles that become raised or develop an irregular edge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mum has revealed how what she thought was an innocent pimple led to her getting a chunk of her ear cut out. Rebecca Cook, 46, had always been vigilant about sun…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1268,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions\/1268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}