Hero hairdresser finds cancerous lump while cutting client’s hair

By Charlie Fenton and Charlie Yates

A mom has praised her hairdresser for "saving her life" after she found a cancerous lump while cutting her hair.

Amy-Leigh Roberts, 33, had spotted an unusual raised mark on the head of 33-year-old Bethany Vaughan while removing a mesh-integration hair system.

She wears the mesh for her blonde locks after losing her hair as a child following treatment for a brain tumor.

The hair-loss specialist, who runs her shop Spectrum Hair Boutique in Cleator Moor, near Whitehaven, Cumbria, first thought it was a graze.

But she has revealed how she grew concerned after removing the hair system and washing Bethany's hair.

Amy-Leigh, of Cleator Moor, later recalled seeing a tiny black speck in the same spot during a previous refit three months earlier — but said it had grown noticeably by the time she raised the alarm to her childhood friend.

The talented hairdresser said: "Everything in my body just sank, and I knew that wasn't just a regular mole.

"It was black, it was purple, it was raised.

"It just looks like the definition of evil."

Amy-Leigh took photos and advised Vaughan to seek specialist medical advice.

Bethany said: "I just thought the worst, to be honest.

"Like, 'Oh my God, not again.'"

Bethany, a stay-at-home mom from Parton, Cumbria, was previously diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 8.

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She underwent brutal chemo and radiotherapy treatment, which caused her to lose parts of her hair and parts to thin.

The mom-of-one said she had no idea the mark was there and that no one else had noticed it before the haircut, which happened on June 19.

Bethany said: "She just sat and stared at me in the mirror.

"She didn't say a word."

Amy-Leigh has since helped adapt the hair system that Bethany wears so the area can be examined.

Bethany revealed she booked herself into to see the GP to have it checked out the same month.

She was then sent to a dermatology unit on July 21 following an urgent referral, who confirm in fact that it was common skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma.

She has been given a date of Sept. 2 for a procedure to have it removed.

Bethany added that she was deeply grateful for Roberts' quick thinking.

The mom said: "I'd just like to thank her so much because she has literally saved my life."

She also described Roberts' care as "exceptional."

Amy-Leigh is now calling on other professionals to be more vigilant about scalp and skin changes.

She said: "I would dread to think if she was sat in somebody else's chair and they had seen that and didn't say anything, of what that outcome could have been."

Spectrum Hair Boutique offers hairdressing, extensions, hair-loss systems and trichology-related services.

Roberts said she keeps her profit margins low on hair-loss work to avoid feeling like she is benefiting from someone's illness.

The salon is also a registered "Hair Fairy" with the children's hair-loss charity Little Lady Locks and Signature Scalp, supporting young people experiencing hair loss due to cancer or other serious conditions.