A MUM who thought she'd pulled a muscle while giving her kids breakfast was horrified when her injury turned out to be stage four cancer. Claire Turner, 43, was in the front passenger seat of her car as her husband Mark, 49, drove them and their three children on a family getaway in October 2023. As she turned to pass a croissant to 11-year-old Annabelle behind her, she felt a pain in her right shoulder.
Doctors initially believed it to be a torn ligament, but Claire became concerned weeks later when she noticed a slight swelling on her shoulder blade the size of a £2 coin. The accountant's shoulder continued to balloon over the next few weeks and it became so tender she couldn't even wear a bra or carry a bag. After multiple trips to her GP and hospital, Claire underwent a biopsy on the 2.
8in (7cm) mass in January 2024 that revealed it was a stage four cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM). READ MORE ON SKIN CANCER CMM is a type of skin cancer that develops in cells called melanocytes, which produce melanin and give our skin its colour. The mum-of-three, who used sun beds in her 20s, is now waiting on a scan that will reveal how the cancer is progressing.
She is urging people to avoid harmful UV rays to avoid the same fate. Claire, from Didcot, Oxfordshire , said: "It was a blessing that injury happened and that I pushed it. Most read in Health "I don't know what I did that day but obviously some movement made that tumour, that had been under there for a long time, swell and m.