I’m 52 and thought I was too old for acne.

A woman who thought she had just a pimple on her nose was diagnosed with skin cancer.

Michelle Davis, 52, thought it was just a spot until she discovered a red bump in April 2022 and it “really hurts.”

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The pimple flared up and down, she said.

Doctors immediately thought it was cancer.

After a biopsy, Davis was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer.

She had surgery to remove the cancer and stretched the skin of her nose to cover the remaining hole.

Davis is currently recovering from surgery and does not require further treatment.

An account manager from Orewa, New Zealand said:

“It will go away – I kept telling myself.

“It will flare up and come back.

“I remember squeezing and nothing came out.

“Then it bleed, bleed, bleed – for a week or so.

“It was a shock when I discovered it. I had never heard of basal cell carcinoma.”

Davis first discovered “pimples” a year ago and spent time covering them up with concealer.

“It was really hard,” she said.

“Like a volcano under your skin.

“I was walking with my girlfriend and it turned purple and she pointed it out.

“I said, ‘It’s just acne.

“I was in denial.”

Davis said that by January the place was “really sore” and he tried to squeeze.

She said: “Nothing happened.

“Then I bled and bled.

“I thought, ‘That’s not normal.'”

Davis went to a doctor in February and was told it looked like skin cancer.

A biopsy confirmed she had basal cell carcinoma, and she was told she would need surgery to remove the cancer.

Last month, Davis underwent nasal flap reconstruction at Ormiston Hospital, which removed the cancer and pulled the skin from his nose over the hole.

She said: “They cut my nose in a zigzag. They cut out a crater. There was a hole at the end of my nose.

“Then they put the skin down to cover it.”

Davis was left with horrified and differently shaped nostrils, but said it was healing well.

She said: “It’s still healing.

“My nostrils are shaped differently because I pulled the skin.

“The scar tissue is hard and the nerves are paralyzed.

“Some people lose their noses, so please take care of them.”

Davis said that having had skin cancer once made him more likely to develop it, so he plans to be monitored once a year.

She wants to raise awareness of symptoms so others can get tested.

“If I kept ignoring it, it would have gotten worse.

“I may have reached a stage where they couldn’t cut it out.

“I honestly thought it was acne.

“I thought skin cancer was a mole.

“Skin blocks weren’t an issue when I was growing up.

“I now incorporate it into my daily skincare routine.”

Davis has finished stitching and is now taking care of the skin and increasing collagen to help with scars.

“At first I thought I was 52 and single, but now I have this horrible nose.

“But it’s been pretty empowering.

“It’s just the surface. It’s what’s inside that counts.”

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