"A cancerous lump on my hand"

I would like to express my gratitude and sincere thanks to the medical professionals I came into contact with during the first half of this year. I live in the south side of Glasgow.

In late December 2020, a lump began to develop on the back of my hand which by mid January was giving me cause for concern. I sent a photo of this to my local surgery, and was very shortly thereafter sitting in the surgery with Dr Stafford having my hand examined. Two weeks after that I was in the dermatology department at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, where it was provisionally diagnosed as a form of skin cancer. Another three weeks down the line and I was at the plastic surgery unit at the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, having the lump removed. Surgery was performed by Mr Murphy and Miss Higgins, and I have to say, as someone who doesn’t do well at the sight of blood, I had such a laugh given the chat that was going on while I lay there with my hand (out of sight) being worked upon. Since then, I have had two telephone consultations and today, a follow-on appointment at the QEUH with clinical nurse Wilma at the dermatology unit. All is well and looking at my hand now you would never know that it had been the subject of fairly extensive surgery.

I feel very proud to be part of a society that cares for the public like this, especially with a pandemic raging, and humbled at the sheer professionalism of those that I encountered. I would like to say a very big thank you to all of them.