A mum is warning people to avoid sunbeds and wear cream after what she thought was a pulled muscle from passing her daughter a croissant in the car turned out to be stage four skin cancer. Claire Turner was sat in the front passenger seat as her 49-year-old husband Mark Turner drove the family, including their three children, for a family weekend away in October 2023. As she turned from the seat to pass the pastry over to 11-year-old Annabelle Turner in the back seat, she felt a pain in her right shoulder.
Doctors initially believed it to be a torn ligament but the 43-year-old became concerned weeks later when she noticed a slight swelling on her shoulder blade the size of a £2 coin. The mum-of-three, who used sunbeds in her 20s, is now waiting on a scan that will reveal how the cancer is progressing and is urging people to avoid harmful UV rays to avoid the same fate. (Image: Kennedy News and Media) The accountant's shoulder continued to balloon over the course of the next few weeks and it became so painful 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 7cm mass that revealed it was a stage four cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) in January 2024. The mum-of-three, who used sunbeds in her 20s, is now waiting on a scan that will reveal how the cancer is progressing and is urging people to avoid harmful UV rays to avoid the same fate. Claire, from Didcot, Oxfordshire, said: "It was a blessing that injur.