Katherine Ryan says cancer diagnosis ‘is not a battle’
Katherine Ryan has attempted to clear up any misunderstanding surrounding the news of her skin cancer diagnosis.
On Friday (21 March), the 41-year-old Canadian comedian revealed on her podcast Telling Everybody Everything that she had a mole removed from her arm. Test results came back showing she had early stage melanoma, which is a type of skin cancer.
Ryan explained that she originally spent £300 on a seven-minute consultation in which the doctor incorrectly told her that the mole was not cancerous. She eventually paid £1,000 to have it removed at a private clinic in South Kensington.
Hours after the podcast went live, Ryan shared a video on Instagram, telling her followers her diagnosis was “not a battle”.
“The melanoma thing from my podcast got picked up [by the media] with added commentary like ‘takes a swipe at the NHS,’” she began.
“It’s all fine, it’s not a big deal, so don’t stress.”
She continued: “And one more thing, it’s not a battle. There’s no battle. The battle is done. I had a mole removed. It came back melanoma, very early melanoma, it’s fine.”
The comedian said that despite two doctors at private practices telling her that the mole on her arm wasn’t cancerous, she knew it “wasn’t right” since she was previously diagnosed with stage two melanoma on her leg in 2004, when she was 21.
“I know a lot about melanoma. I had a melanoma as a very young woman, stage two on my leg, and I’ve spoken about that before,” she said on her podcast.
In a further video shared on TikTok, Ryan shared pictures of her cancerous mole, which was small, raised and red.
She added that the mole didn’t look like a typical example of melanoma, but it was “raised” and “constantly changing”.
Ryan credited Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave for speaking about her recent melanoma diagnosis and inspiring her to get the mole examined.
“I’m a real pale person and I have loads of moles. And when the Teddi Mellencamp stuff came out, I was like, ‘I don’t like this mole’”.
With that in mind, Ryan implored her followers to trust their gut over their health concerns.
“Just get it checked, and get a second opinion. And don’t be happy with ‘No it’s not the thing you think it is, bye!’ Because honestly, if I had taken that advice, I could have been dead in a few years – that’s how serious melanoma is.”
She said in her podcast: “It just feels crazy to me, like what could have happened if I hadn’t been my own advocate – and I will continue to be my own advocate,” she said.
“If I hadn’t pushed, if I had taken that good answer the first time and walked away, then I would have had melanoma just growing and spreading in my arm. And I would say, ‘Oh no, the doctor says it’s fine, it’s fine,’ and god knows how far that would have gone.”
An overwhelming 77 per cent of people would not recognise signs of a melanoma – a malignant skin cancer tumour – despite the majority of Britons worrying about skin cancer, a 2023 study by the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) found.
There are two types of skin cancer; melanoma, the deadliest form of which around 13,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the UK, and non-melanoma, of which there are more than 100,000 new cases diagnosed every year.
The risk of melanoma is doubled if a person has had five or more sunburns at any age, the Skin Care Foundation states. But just one blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life.
Non-melanoma comes in two most common forms: basal cell carcinoma, which accounts for about 75 per cent of skin cancers, and squamous cell carcinoma, which accounts for about 20 per cent. It is mainly caused by overexposure to UV light.
