Kāpiti Coast Funeral Home managing director Andrew Malcolm is a bit bruised and battered at the moment.

It’s because he’s had a skin cancer scare which has involved surgery at the back of his neck and in his right armpit.

Malcolm has had four moles removed from his upper back over about 10 years so he had been getting skin checks every three months.

But he hadn’t had a check recently because of the Covid-19 pandemic and other things.

During that extended break between checks, a mole in the back of his neck became cancerous.

“It had got itchier and sorer and I knew it was definitely nasty.”

He was in a supermarket when he met a friend who works at the St Joseph Skin Cancer Centre, in Paraparaumu, which led to him seeing Dr Roland Lotsu pronto.

The mole was immediately removed before he was referred to Hutt Hospital for more treatment.

Malcolm was put on the urgent list and within a month he was on an operating table surrounded by a team of specialists.

“They said to me they had to take some more from my neck because there had been tentacles that had gone down and could have gone into a lymph node.”

Deeper surgery was done, including removing corresponding lymph nodes as well as a large auxiliary node from his right armpit.

Looking back, the affected auxiliary node was why he was getting a bad shoulder.

“It was all cancer dribbling down my lymph node.”

He’s back home resting and has been in quite a bit of pain, but thankfully it’s subsiding.

And he hopes he gets a call from the hospital saying he’s got the all-clear.

“I feel lucky that the health system jumped when I needed it.

“I’m still feeling a bit anxious because I don’t get the results for a few weeks so I don’t know what the next step is.

“If there’s more then I’ll have to go back and they will start cutting again.”

His advice to others was simple. “See a specialist as soon as you see or feel something wrong.

“Don’t wait – get it checked out.”