A first-time mum delayed her life-saving op and left skin cancer growing on her face so she could give birth safely to her son.
Rachael Rollisson ended up needing to have a huge chunk of her forehead removed as the "tiny mark" grew so big.
The 32-year-old noticed the blotch on the right side of her forehead years ago, but thought it was a birthmark so didn't "think much of it".
She started noticing the mark because it stayed white while the rest of her face became red while exercising, in training as a 20-time British skipping champion.
It became more prominent during her pregnancy, prompting Rachael to get it checked and discover she had basal cell carcinoma - the most common type of skin cancer.
She then faced a terrifying nine-month wait until after she had given birth to have surgery - allowing the cancer to spread and meaning a larger area of skin had to be removed.
The fitness business owner has now shared shocking photos of the hole in her forehead and the large scar she's been left with after surgery.
Rachael wants to warn people about the risk of skin cancer even for those who aren't "sun-worshippers".
The woman from Redditch in Worcestershire said: "I first noticed it a few years ago but stupidly I didn't get it checked out until recently.
"I thought it was a birthmark to start off with so I didn't really think anything of it, just because I'd had it for so long and it never grew from what I saw anyway.
"But when I fell pregnant last year I really started really noticing a difference - it started looking more prominent even when I wasn't exercising and it looked bigger around the edges so it was growing.
"I had this test where they basically take a section of it out like a hole punch and test it and the results came back that it was low-grade skin cancer.
"I knew it could just keep spreading and growing and I just wanted to get it out but being pregnant I didn't want to cause any issues with that.
"After finding out what it was and having to wait to get it removed it was playing on my mind quite a bit.
"While I had to wait to have the surgery I was worried about it spreading - I'd already had it for a few years and I just kept thinking how much bigger is it going to get in that time.
"I knew the bigger the area was the bigger the scar would be and it was already quite a big area.
"If I'd left it any longer it could have gone into my eyebrow or hairline which isn't nice to think.
"But it was definitely worth it to have my baby here and healthy and both of us are okay now."
The mum says she first noticed the mark on her face in 2015 but brushed it off for years until it started to look more prominent during her pregnancy last year.
At the beginning of 2021, a suspicious mole on her mum's back was diagnosed as low-grade skin cancer, which also encouraged Rachael to get her mark checked out.
After visiting her local GP in February 2021 she was referred to a dermatologist at Kidderminster Hospital in May that year, where a test confirmed she had basal cell carcinoma.
With the NHS waiting time for an operation being up to two years, Rachael decided to go private for Mohs surgery - where a specialist cuts away the affected area and further another layer of skin to make sure they get all of the cancerous cells.
So just four months after the mum and her husband Adam Rollisson, 33, welcomed their baby James, she had surgery at Solihull Hospital, on January 15th.
Rachael said: "I was fully awake for the surgery and that was the scariest thing.
"They injected the area with a local anaesthetic so I had quite a few injections in my head to numb it and that was probably the most painful part of it.
"They cut the skin away and take it away for a few hours to test it and make sure they've got all of it.
"They got it all in one go the first time so I was quite lucky and then I went back in for an hour and a half to have it sewn back up.
"That was probably the worst bit because it was a lot of pulling and tugging of the skin, which wasn't nice at all. The feeling of the skin being pulled over is going to haunt me.
"They allowed me to take a picture of the hole left by the section they took out before they sewed it back up again so that was quite scary seeing that.
"I didn't think it would be that big of a surgery so when I came out of the surgery I was quite upset because the scar was so big but I'm just relieved I'm in the clear now."
The mum says her skin cancer diagnosis came as a shock as she has always been careful with sun cream and doesn't sit in the rays much.
After her scary experience, she warns that 'it can happen to anyone' and hopes to encourage people to get their skin checked.
Rachael said: "I'm not really a sun-worshipper but I do tan really easily. I wasn't in the sun often at all, not enough to expect to have something like this anyway.
"It's scary because it shows that it really can happen to anyone, even if you're not a sun-worshipper.
"I've always been quite careful with sun cream but I'll definitely be even more careful now, especially with the baby.
"I would just advise people to get anything different on their skin checked out definitely."
