Natasha Hamilton reveals secret cancer battle in emotional Good Morning Britain interview - after mistaking warning signs for mosquito bite
Natasha Hamilton opened up about her secret skin cancer battle in an emotional Good Morning Britain interview on Friday.
The former Atomic Kitten singer, 42, gave fans a health update as she spoke about her diagnosis of Basal-cell carcinoma -which she received last year - with hosts Kate Garraway, 58, and Robert Rinder, 47.
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is a type of non-melanoma skin cancer. Non-melanoma means it does not involve skin pigment cells.
Kate pointed out: 'I was saying thankfully because we want to establish that you are now fine. You're cancer free and all is good, but you're a living health warning in a way.'
Natasha said: 'I am. now I have to be really vigilant, I have to check my skin all the time.
'Since then I've had a few things appear where I've had to go back to the dermatologist, they're on the "watch list".
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The 42-year-old thought that she had been bitten while on holiday, but then after four weeks, realised that it was something else (pictured)
'This is probably something I am going to have to keep an eye for the rest of my life.'
The singer went on to explain how she was diagnosed with cancer.
Natasha said: 'So I had been on holiday, I wasn't actually in the sun a lot, my baby was only about five months old and I was breastfeeding.
'One afternoon I had her on my lap, my back was in the sun and I burnt.
'I don't know if it was later that day or the next day, I had an itchy spot on my back, i thought it was a mosquito bite...
'I felt it, I went "oh mosquito bite".
'It wasn't until four weeks later when I was at home and it was itching I was like hang on a minute that seems a bit long for a mosquito bite.
'I asked my hub to have look and he went oh that's not a bite, he took a picture, I looked at it and I went I think I know what that is.
'Originally it had just been a dark freckle.
'I had on my back for many years, it wasn't raised it wasn't a mole. '
'It was just a freckle.'
Kate then asked her about her sunbed use from her Atomic Kitten days, to which Natasha said: 'People of my age will probably feel the same or remember, if you were going on a night out, you used a sunbed cos you wanted that sun kissed look to make yourself feel good, to give you a bit of confidence.
'If I was going to do something like Top of The Pops, or a big TV show, I'd want to look sun kissed, so we would go to the sunbeds.
'There was a sun bed shop facing the hotel that we stayed in all the time in London.
'I used tan accelerators and I can honestly say I don't think that there was ever a time when I went on a sun bed that I didn't burn, looking back now.
'I'm type one skin anyway, I'm not supposed to be in such intense sun.'
The star also revealed that her mum has also had her own battle with skin cancer.
Natasha explained: 'Two years previous, my mum had been suffering with a patch of dry skin that wouldn't heal.
'I wasn't anything ominous looking, it was a piece of skin.
'I said to her go and see a dermo, I'd done a lot of research previous.
'Initially she was told it was nothing and sent away.
'That was at the doctors, a year later, I saw it and it looked sore and aggravated, I said mum please ask them to refer you to a dermatologist.
'Straight away they said look it is skin cancer.
'She had a lot of cancerous sells burnt off her face, it was very painful for her.'
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6:00am on ITV.
WHAT IS BASAL CELL CARCINOMA?
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is a type of non-melanoma skin cancer.
Non-melanoma means it does not involve skin pigment cells.
BCC makes up more than 80 per cent of all forms of skin cancer in the UK and US.
About 5.4 million basal and squamous cell skin cancers are diagnosed each year in the US and around 100,000 in the UK.
It is mainly caused by overexposure to UV light from the sun or tanning beds.
BCC can occur anywhere on the body but is most common on areas exposed to the sun, such as the face, neck and ears.
The following people are most at risk:
People with fair skin or hair
Those who work outdoors
People who use sunbeds
Those with a personal history of the condition
BCC is usually painless. Early symptoms often only include a scab that bleeds occasionally and does not heal.
Some appear as flat, red, scaly marks or have a pearl-like rim. The latter can then erode into a ulcer.
Others are lumpy with shiny nodules crossed by blood vessels.
Most BCCs can be cured, however, treatment is complex if they are left for a long time.
Treatment usually involves removing the cancerous tumour and some of the surrounding skin.
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