‘A stranger told me to check a mole on my back for skin cancer – she saved my life’
A skin cancer survivor is looking for the stranger who saved her life by warning her to get the mole on her back checked by a doctor.
Emma Wigmore, 50, from Chelmsford in Essex, was enjoying a summer’s day out with friends on central London’s South Bank in June 2025 when she had a chance encounter with an off-duty dermatologist who noticed a “worrying” mole on her back.
Ms Wigmore said a woman came up behind her, touched her arm gently, then said: “I hope you don’t mind. You may not realize it, but you have a mole on your back and I’m a dermatologist and I’m a little worried about it.”
The “nervous” dermatologist was hesitant to approach at first, but said she would feel “terrible” and “couldn’t live with herself” if she didn’t voice her concerns. He also tried to reassure Mrs Wigmore by saying: “It’s probably nothing, they’ll just throw him out.”
Mrs Wigmore said Independent She said she was “confused” at first, explaining: “I knew I had moles, but I never really worried about any of them.” He added: “The fact that he put so much thought into whether or not to speak up made me take it seriously.”
As soon as she returned home after that weekend, Ms Wigmore immediately made an appointment with her GP, who immediately put her on the six-week cancer referral route.
Mrs. Wigmore then went to a private doctor, who took one look and said: “You can’t go anywhere with that mole; he needs to come out at once.” He was supposed to go on holiday the following week, but the doctor said, “No, that will have to wait, time is critical.” The surgeon removed me the next day.
Two weeks later, while she was finally on holiday, she received a call informing her that it was melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer. Luckily, the doctor was able to catch it at stage 1 rather than progressing to stage 2, which has a higher risk of spreading to the lymph nodes and will require chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment.
The doctor made it clear that if the mole was not treated further, the situation would become “much more serious.”
Mrs. Wigmore said she would never have noticed the mole if the stranger had not stopped her. She said the mole went unnoticed for so long because she rarely wore backless dresses or wore her hair up due to scarring from a previous brain tumor surgery.
His health has since improved and he will be monitored for the next five years through mole mapping, a dermatological technique that records all moles on the skin using advanced technology to track changes over time.
Ms Wigmore is now appealing to the public to find the dermatologist who saved her life. He said: “I would love to find him so I can thank him for having the courage to stop me in the street and tell me about his concerns.”
“He was gone before I had time to ask anything else. I didn’t even get his name,” said Mrs Wigmore.
He described the dermatologist, who stopped him on London’s South Bank at around 5pm on June 21, 2025, as a woman, possibly in her 30s/40s, with dark hair and an Irish accent.
Ms Wigmore added: “I want to warn the public that we need to keep an eye out for moles… We are currently the age group most at risk of developing skin cancer.”
Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, with around 17,000 people diagnosed each year; but when diagnosed early, around nine in ten people survive for at least ten years, according to cancer charity Melanoma UK.
Tracy Paine, Melanoma UK CEO, said: “This story is a reminder that melanoma can often be caught early if we pay attention.”
“Importantly, most cases are preventable and it is easy to protect skin from UV damage through shade, clothing and sunscreen.”
Ms. Paine recommends checking your moles regularly using the “ABCDE rule,” paying attention to “Asymmetry, Border irregularity, Color change, Diameter growth, and Evolution over time” as early warning signs.
He also warned that UV protection is important all year round because UV rays are present even in winter and on cloudy days. “Simple daily habits such as using sunscreen, sunbathing between 11am and 3pm and avoiding sunbeds have been proven to reduce the risk,” he explained.
