Morning Show host Kylie Gillies has taken to social media to warn Aussies not to ignore changes to their skin.
Gillies shared a photo of a mark on her cheek, which she said she ignored for “18 months because I was frightened of what the treatment would be”.
The small red mark on her cheek turned out to be Actinic Keratosis — a rough, scaly patch of skin that can eventually become cancerous.
“This is me rocking an Actinic Keratosis,” she wrote. “On the left is what it originally looked like. Barely a spot.. so I ignored it for 18 months because I was frightened of what the treatment would be. Stupid.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYp1RXVAt3S/?taken-by=kyliegillies
Gillies said her doctor used a cream to treat the mark and begged other Aussies not to wait as long as she did.
“I’m sharing these ugly pics so that you know you DON’T necessarily have to get these sunspots ‘burnt’ off. My treatment was a cream; a kind of ‘chemo’ cream,” she continued.
“I beg you not to wait..like I did. And now, 5 weeks later? There’s not even a mark.”
Actinic Keratosis usually appear on the face, lips, ears, back of hands, forearms, scalp and neck. They can take years to develop into cancer, but because of dangerous nature are often removed as a precaution.
Cancer Council Australia says approximately, two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the time they are 70, with more than 750,000 people treated for one or more non-melanoma skin cancers in Australia each year.
Gillies post has been flooded with comments, with some people saying they have noticed similar marks on their own skin.
“Thankyou for posting, I have a spot that looks like the first pic & have been meaning to book an appointment……..I’m doing it TODAY,” wrote one Instagram user.