A Mark Ignored, a Diagnosis Delayed
Goldup recalled ignoring the mark on her neck for years. “During that time, I told myself it was nothing to worry about,” she said. “But then I got a call asking me to go into the surgery and was told it was malignant melanoma. It was both shocking and upsetting.” Her case illustrates a pattern that doctors warn about: a growth that appears to be a lifelong birthmark can actually be a melanoma that develops slowly, sometimes decades after the initial skin damage occurred. Melanoma often begins in or near a preexisting mole or mark, and changes in color, size, or texture can be early warning signs. Yet many people, like Goldup, delay having such marks examined because they assume they are simply birthmarks.
Birthmarks themselves are common and generally harmless. Doctors classify them by cause: some stem from excess pigment cells, such as moles and café au lait spots, while others involve extra blood vessels, ranging from faint salmon patches to deeper hemangiomas. Most vascular marks fade with time, though some persist into adulthood. They reflect localized shifts in skin cell development before birth or in early infancy. For centuries, people viewed birthmarks as ordinary skin features with no medical significance. Over time, medicine learned to distinguish harmless marks from dangerous growths, but cultural ideas sometimes treated certain marks as beauty features or omens. By the late twentieth century, public health campaigns began shifting attention toward preventable skin damage, especially from ultraviolet exposure.
Sun Exposure and the ‘Era of Girls’ Holidays’
Goldup points to her teenage and young adult years as the likely source of her melanoma. She started traveling abroad with friends about 20 years ago. One trip was to Tenerife when she was 19. “I was never a sunbed user but that was the era of girls’ holidays when it was all about flying off to the sun and getting a tan,” she said. “Some of my friends had darker skin but I’m from an Irish background and I used oil instead of sunscreen, so I got really burnt. I was diagnosed with melanoma when I was 38, so I’m pretty sure the damage happened then but only started to emerge years later.”
The rise of package holidays and sun-seeking travel in the 1980s and 1990s normalized heavy sun exposure, particularly among young women who used tanning oils instead of sunscreen. Goldup’s Irish background meant she burned easily. The damage from those burns, laid down in her skin cells decades earlier, eventually set the stage for melanoma. After her diagnosis, she underwent two surgeries–one on her neck and another to remove a second melanoma found on her chest. She was given the all clear. In August, she began a year-long course of immunotherapy as a precautionary measure to stop the cancer from returning.
Goldup’s story underscores why routine skin checks matter, especially for people with a history of sunburn or repeated intense exposure. Decades after sun-damaged skin cells were deposited, the body’s defenses may fail to stop rogue cells from growing. Early detection remains the best defense, yet many still delay seeing a doctor because they assume any mark is a lifelong birthmark. This case, the mother says, shows that a mark dismissed for years can carry a much deeper and more dangerous significance.
