“I was completely floored,” she says after what she thought was a 'birthmark' turned out to be skin cancer.
“That was my thing. I just loved being out in the sun and getting that vitamin D and that relaxation with my headphones,” Smith, 42, a nurse practitioner in Dallas, Texas, tells TODAY.com.Courtesy Ilia Smithfor a couple of years in her 20s. They were part of the package when she joined a gym and she used them because she wanted her skin to be a little bit darker.
Smith never thought about that dark spot on her hip until she went to a spa with a friend who was a dermatologist’s physician’s assistant and told her, “You need to watch that.” That warning suddenly popped back into her mind 10 years later, in late 2020, when Smith accidentally scratched the spot with her fingernail and a piece of it broke off while the remnants started bleeding.This photo shows the spot that Smith thought was a birthmark. After part of it flaked off, a biopsy showed it was skin cancer.She also remembers that in addition to bleeding, the spot had started to become itchy in recent months.
The incident led to her to make an appointment with a dermatologist, who biopsied the spot. The results:“I was completely floored,” Smith says. “I got very concerned because my daughter lovesMelanoma is more than 20 times more common in white people than in Black people, according to the
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
More Black physicians could improve life expectancy of Black patients: ResearchersBlack people make up 13% of the U.S. population, but Black doctors are not equally represented.
Read more »
Legislator: My nurse bolted because she feared my gardeners | Opinion'I’m not going to pay for someone to treat me like dirt, nor am I going to stand for them treating the 80,000 people in the city of Trenton like that either.'
Read more »
Nurses' strike: Nurse union relaxes strike rules for critical servicesThe NHS says 'positive discussions' with the RCN mean nurses will cover some departments.
Read more »
Black Protestant church still vital despite attendance dropThe wide empty spaces in pews between parishioners at a Sunday service at Zion Baptist Church in South Carolina’s capital highlight a post-pandemic reality common among many Black Protestant churches across the nation. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, attendance fell 15 percentage points at Black Protestant churches after the COVID outbreak. Researchers say no other major religious group has registered a decline of this magnitude. Despite the drop, pastors and parishioners say Black churches remain fundamental to Black communities, providing refuge and hope, especially during times of challenge.
Read more »
Black Hood #17, An Archie Comic With Bondage From 1946Heritage Auction has a copy of Archie Comics' Black Hood 17 from 1946 up for auction with bids totalling $252 right now.
Read more »
South Carolina Democrats elect first Black woman to lead state partyChristale Spain, a longtime party operative, is elected as chair of South Carolina’s Democratic Party, becoming the first Black woman to lead the organization.
Read more »