How BBC Journalist Sarah Lee’s Skin Cancer Was Misdiagnosed

Sarah Lee is a 29-year-old BBC journalist who found out she had stage 3 melanoma.  How did she find out?  Well, first of all, she took a picture of her scalp because she was trying to see if she needed a hair color appointment.  That’s when she noticed a small black mole on her scalp.

Sarah went to the dermatologist who gave her a shockingly incorrect diagnosis:  the doctor said that it didn’t look unusual, she was too young to have skin cancer, and that it is almost impossible to get melanoma on the scalp.  The doctor said that it was almost impossible to get melanoma on the scalp because the hair acts as a barrier to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. However, as Sarah found out, that’s not true.

Later, the mole had grown and multiplied.  Sarah went to another doctor who said it was a fungus and it would get better without treatment.  Wrong again. She then went to another dermatologist who decided to have the moles removed and biopsied. The biopsy results confirmed that Sarah had “stage three malignant nodular melanoma.” The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. Sarah Lee underwent an eight-hour surgery to remove 24 lymph nodes, which included her neck.

Sarah Lee is still recovering and she is taking medication.  But the mental and physical side effects have been very hard on her.  Melanoma is highly treatable when detected early, but advanced melanoma can spread to the lymph nodes and internal organs, which can result in death. It is estimated that 7,650 people will die from melanoma in 2022 in the United States.  Sarah Lee is expected to recover and has been told that her cancer most likely won’t come back.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, excess exposure to UV radiation from sunlight or the use of indoor tanning increases the risk for all skin cancer types, including melanoma, as does a personal history of the disease. Research indicates that both UV light from the sun and tanning beds can cause melanoma and increase the risk of a benign mole progressing to melanoma. The majority of melanoma cases are attributable to UV exposure. Other possible factors include genetics and immune system deficiencies.

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