TV presenter Adrian Chiles is known for his wry sense of humour, so it wasn't a surprise when the former One Show presenter shared the worrying news that he had skin cancer via his via his Guardian column– in an unexpected way.
Rather than writing an article purely to share his diagnosis, instead the broadcaster used his column to complain about the process by which he found out that he had a squamous cell carcinoma, a common type of skin cancer, lamenting that it was a convoluted path of letters, texts, emails and phone calls that led to his eventual discovery of the disease.
The 58-year-old explained that he had "a thing on the back of my shoulder", which he needed removed. He wrote that his doctor said news of his surgery would come via a letter, causing Adrian to query if it could come faster, to which the doctor told him it wouldn't make any difference, adding that he was told: "'The only thing that would have made any difference was if you’d come sooner.' To me, this sentence argued against itself somewhat. Time was either of the essence, or it wasn't. I even flirted with the idea of interpreting "won't make any difference now" as his way of saying I was doomed anyway."
He continued: "I called the dermatologist I had previously seen about it privately, and she told me not to be silly, it would be fine. A GP I know said the same."
Adrian continued that two weeks later, he had the "thing" removed, writing: "All I wanted [the doctor] to do was stop saying worrying things and, instead, whip out his scalpel, go in as deep as he fancied, and dig the thing out. This he did. He told me to get the stitches taken out in 10 days’ time, and he would either call or write with the results of the tests."
Further weeks of texts, letters and app notifications of emails followed, all of which exasperated Adrian, who lamented: "I don't care about the shabbiness of hospitals, confusion over appointment times and places, even the poor communication skills of some doctors. I just want to know there's a number to call, which will get me someone relevant to talk to."
Adrian eventually learned that his diagnosis was a squamous cell carcinoma, explaining post-surgery that it was "All removed and won't spread. So not nothing, but not serious. Needs keeping an eye on."
We're sending well wishes to Adrian as he continues to recover.