Gardener thought he had insect bite - but ended up half-BLIND

As a gardener, David Histon wasn't concerned when he spotted what he thought was an insect bite on the side of his nose.

But rather than going away, the spot grew.

Eventually, David decided to get it checked and was horrified to discover it was skin cancer.

Sadly, it was so far advanced he had to have his left eye and his eye socket removed to get rid of it.

"I’ve been a gardener most of my life so when I saw a spot on the side of my nose by my eye, I just thought it was an insect bite," said David, 66 and from Redditch.

"It started small but then it began to get bigger. I just put a bit of cream on it and decided to leave it. I know now you should never do that.

"By the time I got it checked, it had grown to around half-an-inch across my nose."

David was referred to Worcester Royal Hospital for a biopsy in April 2016.

“I remember it clearly,” said David, who is now retired.

"I got there at 8.45am and they put a needle into the side of my nose to freeze it and then started digging away.

"After about 15 minutes they took a sample down to the lab to test it.

“When they came back, they said they needed to go deeper.

“By the time they’d finished, it was 3.15pm and they’d dug the size of a 10p piece out of the side of my nose and eye socket.

"They’d had to stop for around two hours over lunch because I was bleeding so much.

“If I’d stuck my finger up my nose, it would have come out by my eye.

“They stopped because they couldn’t go any further.”

Doctors referred David to the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre at City Hospital in Birmingham.

He and wife Elaine got the train there early the next morning, with a big patch over his eye.

“They examined me and took photos and, within an hour, they said I needed to have my eye removed,” said David, who has three grown-up sons.

“Two weeks later, they did the operation and removed my eye.

“They said if I’d left it any longer, it could have spread into my brain.

"I knew if I had my eye removed, I could still be on the planet so I had to have it done.”

Source: birminghammail.co.uk

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