Woman Says She Felt ‘Pretty Good’ After Surgery to Remove Cancerous Mole on Her Face — Until She Took Bandage Off (Exclusive)

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Daniela Mullins went for a full body scan with her dermatologist while sorting out her postpartum skin.

• When his dermatologist saw the mole on his face, he decided to take a closer look.

• Mullins was later diagnosed with Stage 0 skin cancer, also known as carcinoma in situ.

After giving birth to her daughter, Daniela Mullins started experiencing skin problems and decided to see a new dermatologist for regular checkups.

When she went for a full body scan in April 2025, her dermatologist noticed moles on her face; Mullins told PEOPLE he first noticed it around June 2015.

Mullins, 34, says the mole looked “normal” to the naked eye, but her doctor felt differently.

“I never noticed that my mole had changed. It wasn’t until this whole diagnosis, everything happened, that I went back and looked at the pictures and realized how much it had changed,” the Virginia resident shares with PEOPLE.

Since Mullins was recently postpartum, her dermatologist decided to wait six months before performing a biopsy.

On October 24, 2025, Mullins finally applied for the medical procedure and learned a week later that he had melanoma. He was diagnosed with Stage 0 skin cancer, or carcinoma in situ; This meant that the cancer was on his skin and had not yet spread.

He had surgery to remove the mole and its surrounding area just before Thanksgiving.

“If it wasn’t for my planned skin check, I don’t know when I would have noticed that I had melanoma on my face,” she shares, noting that she has seen multiple dermatologists in the past and no one has expressed concerns about the mole.

Mullins said he felt “pretty good” after surgery until he took off his bandages.

“Two days after I took my bandage off from the procedure, that’s when it hit me,” he says. “Before that, it was just a diagnosis on paper, and even during the procedure, I wasn’t anxious or scared or anything.”

“When I saw the effect on my face, it moved me—not because of aesthetics. It just felt real. It was something tangible,” Mullins says.

Even though the mole was only a small spot on her face, the incision covered nearly her entire cheek, as doctors usually remove the area around the lesion in hopes of eliminating as much potential cancer as possible.

It will take a full year for the scar to heal, but in the meantime, his doctor recommended “time, patience and petroleum jelly.”

“He said, ‘Give it some time. Let your body do what it needs to do,'” she shares.

But Mullins emphasizes that she is less concerned about her scar and more focused on her health.

“My number one priority was to get this cancer out of me and move forward,” she tells PEOPLE. “It’s important to note that some people do care, and that’s okay; that’s valid too. I don’t want my experience and the ‘ugly scar’ to scare people away from getting a skin check.”

Going forward, he will undergo a full-body scan every four months and will likely need to remain an expert on this for the rest of his life.

“Now that this has come out, I have a better chance of developing another one. Luckily, since it’s caught at Stage 0, I don’t need any more treatment. So I don’t need chemotherapy,” he says. “Right now, she’s tending to my scar, making sure it stays moist, and trying to notice any changes the rest of my body might have… trying to be more aware of my skin.”

Mullins “randomly” decided to share her health journey on TikTok, which “resonated with people.” She has since become an advocate of regular skin checks.

“I continued to share my journey, especially after I learned I could get skin cancer. I’m Latino and my parents are both Peruvian. I never thought it could be cancer for me,” she admits. “I wasn’t taught that this was something I could achieve. I thought it was really enlightening and important for other people to know about this.”

While some users were shocked by the size of Mullins’ scar, others reminded her that “the scar was a lifeline” and that they “rather had scarring than cancer.”

For those who find themselves in a similar situation, Mullins says it’s important to “take it one step at a time.”

“Follow what your doctor says, because it’s easy to reach Google, [go] “It’s a lot to process, and that alone is not something to be ashamed of or afraid of,” she tells PEOPLE.

“If you have a support system, really lean on it, because I don’t think I would have been able to muster the strength without it,” Mullins adds.

His diagnosis motivated him to focus on his health in 2026 and beyond.

“Since this diagnosis, I’ve now been like, okay, I need to get these other things checked that I’ve been neglecting, because when you’re a mom you put yourself last. It’s easy to fall behind on things, but I’ve planned everything I need to plan and I’m getting everything checked one by one,” she says.

“I try to be more preventative than having to face the consequences of procrastinating things.”

Read the original article People