Stranger’s act of kindness saved my life
Doctor at a gallery told gran to get mole checked – and it was cancer
A GRANDMOTHER’S life was saved when a stranger spotted a cancerous mole on her face during a trip to an art gallery.
Dr Diana Terry, a retired anaesthetist, was admiring paintings when a woman – who did not give her name but said she was a dermatologist – approached her out of the blue and said: ‘You need to get that sorted.’
The dermatologist had noticed a dark 2mm-wide mole that Dr Terry, 65, had been ignoring. The day after the bizarre encounter, she went to her GP and was referred for treatment.
The mole, which was near the corner of her left eye and had been there for around a year, turned out to be a melanoma which, if left, could have been deadly.
But doctors removed it and Dr Terry has now been given the all-clear. The mother of three, who has seven grandchildren, wanted to thank the woman who saved her life, but had no idea who she was. But months later, she told the story to a friend who said ‘that sounds like Dr Sallie Neill’ – and the hunch turned out to be correct.
The two women, who both live in Bath, have now met again.
Dr Terry, a former consultant at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, said: ‘If she hadn’t spotted it, I foolishly didn’t think anything of it. If it had started itching or bleeding or getting a lot bigger, I might have gone to the GP but that would have been too late and it might have spread.
‘Melanoma are very unpredictable so nobody could say you definitely would have been doomed if you had left it, but
‘It’s what any decent doctor would do’
they can go nasty quite quickly. I think she saved my life.’
Dr Terry said she was in the last room of a tour of the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, in a group of around 12 people, on February 17 when Dr Neill came up to her.
She said: ‘She looked me straight in the eye and said, “you need to get that sorted”. I was taken aback but because I’m a doctor myself and I have done the same thing to other people, I could see she meant it.
‘You don’t ignore something like that. I thought, “Gosh, that is very courageous to go up to a complete stranger and tell them they need to get it looked at”. It was just completely out of the blue.’
Dr Terry’s GP sent her to Bath’s Royal United Hospital where the mole was removed. She was then referred to cancer specialists and, after a follow-up operation in May, she learned that fortunately the cancer had not spread.
‘It was a great relief,’ Dr Terry said. ‘I wanted to track the woman down to say thank you and, by chance, one of my book club friends is a chest physician who had worked with Sallie’s husband. He texted her and said, “Were you at Victoria Art Gallery on February 17?” – and she was.’
After exchanging emails, the pair met at Dr Neill’s home and then again at the gallery on Saturday.
Dr Terry said that, when she thanked her, Dr Neill said: ‘It’s what any decent doctor would do.’
Dr Neill, who formerly worked at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, said she couldn’t ignore the mole once she spotted it.
‘Being a dermatologist is a little bit like bird watching – I wouldn’t know a thing about birds but a bird watcher would see a bird that most of us would miss,’ she said. ‘The mole was dark and irregular which are key signs. We were all fairly close to each other so it was easy for me to stand next to her and have a good look. If she had left it, it would have definitely been serious.’
Dr Neill added: ‘It was extremely nice of her to go to all that trouble to try to find me to say thank you.’ ÷ To check for melanoma, look out for irregularities such as blurred edges to a mole and changes in colour, size or shape. If you have any concerns, see a GP straightaway.