'I thought it was just a verruca, but I had stage four cancer'

Retired doctor on living with shock diagnosis

- By Isobel Williams

A RETIRED doctor was shocked to be told what he thought was a verruca was actually skin cancer — which is now stage four.

Alastair Muir, 63, noticed a skin-coloured lesion on his heel back in 2018 and suspected that it was a wart or verruca, even having it frozen off.

The granddad-of-one from Kinross said that he had never considered the lump could have been melanoma as it did not present with any of the normal symptoms.

Later that year, a biopsy from a dermatologist revealed the shocking diagnosis and Alastair went through several surgeries to remove the lesion.

The dad-of-two said: “I thought it was a verruca, and a colleague agreed and froze it off for me. I had never even considered that it was a poten-tial melanoma.