{"id":1480,"date":"2026-07-20T19:34:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2026-07-20T19:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:34:31","slug":"mums-pimple-led-to-terrifying-ordeal-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/1480\/","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

\"\"<\/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 ears<\/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.<\/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":1481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1480","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\/1480","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=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions\/1482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralstoryworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}