If you worship the sun, make a date with the mole-catcher

Before your skin disappears under layers of tights, woollens, gloves and coats not to be seen again in public until next spring, take a moment to look at your moles. Summer in London may have been a wash-out but tanning on foreign holidays or sun beds means skin cancer is the country's most common cancer, with 100,000 cases annually. Overall the disease kills 2,000 people a year, and rates are predicted to rise.

Alarmingly, GPs are missing a third of melanomas, the deadliest skin cancer. Some 33 per cent of patients were misdiagnosed by their GPs, meaning the average time from a patient first noticing
a changing mole to diagnosis was over a year - too long when melanoma is so difficult to treat.

If detected early, it is 100 per cent survivable.
As I have a relative whose melanoma was missed by his GP inspecting a suspect mole, I kept meaning to have a check-up but, like many of us, I put it off. Finally, a few weeks ago, I went to the MOLE Clinic in the West End.

I had a MOLECheck, a screening done by a nurse which takes 45 minutes and costs £115. The nurse inspected all my moles - even those on the soles of my feet and under my nails - using what looks like a camera lens.

If a suspect mole is detected, the clinic can give an instant diagnosis using more sophisticated equipment.

I was given the all clear but as I am relatively fair-skinned, I was placed in the above-average risk category and advised to have annual checks - which I certainly will now I know how easy it is.
The MOLE Clinic Ltd, 9 Argyll Street, W1 (020 7734 1177, themoleclinic.co.uk)

Deborah Collcutt