We are a General Dermatology Helpline providing information and support for anyone suffering from skin disease or skin cancer.
Back in 1995, having lived successfully with cutaneous t-cell lymphoma, (mycosis fungoides) since 1970 when I was lucky enough to be diagnosed, I made a documentary for the BBC called ‘Scratching the Surface’. It wasn’t about my skin lymphoma, it was made to raise awareness of the physical, emotional and sometimes psychological effects living with a skin disease has on millions of people in the UK alone. You can watch the film here!
I conducted six months of research for this which uncovered some appalling statistics in relation to how skin diseases are dealt with. Most of these, I’m very sad to report, are still the case in 2024! Here are some, as an example. 1) There are more Dermatologists in the San Francisco telephone directory, than the whole of the UK. 2) Medical students at UK universities traditionally do roughly a week to ten days studying the largest organ of the body, (the skin), during their five-year course! This is something I have been campaigning to improve, for the past 28 years. It’s an absolutely appalling and sorry state of affairs. When our skin goes wrong, it can lead to life threatening diseases such as melanoma or skin carcinomas. 3) Waiting lists for people to see a Dermatologist in the UK, are among the longest.
The documentary attracted a great deal of interest. It was ‘Pick of the Day’ in The Times, and garnered an audience of two and a half million people. One of the things that my research had thrown up was the fact that there wasn’t a General Dermatology helpline in the UK, so Skinship UK was established as a Charity, in 1996. The comedian and author Ben Elton, (he has psoriasis) and Dr Mark Porter, (BBC Radio 4’s ‘Inside Health’) have been our patrons from the start.
I have run the helpline single-handedly and on a voluntary basis, for the past 27 years. Skinship UK has been won two major National Charity awards. Any searches for a dermatology helpline find us at the top of the first page. Consequently, I am extremely busy. The work is incredibly rewarding, but sometimes really tough to conduct. Because my callers appreciate that their calls are strictly confidential, I very often get the feeling that they are telling me things about how living with a sometimes disfiguring skin disease, they have never shared, even with friends or family. It’s such a privilege for me to be able to listen, help and support in this way!
As you can no doubt appreciate, some of my calls are extremely distressing! I’ve lost count, for example, of the number of calls telling me about people who have shown a mole that may be exhibiting signs of pre-cancerous changes to a GP, (an irregular shape, raising from the surface, bleeding when scratched etc), only to hear the words, “Oh, that’s nothing to worry about!”. Very often, this, it seems to me, is due to the paucity of training they’ve received in dermatology. No referral is made, nothing is done in the way of investigation, (biopsies, excision etc), and I then get the call, sometime later, with the awful news that the patient has gone on to develop end stage metastatic disease, all of which could have been avoided!
Another set of really difficult calls are in relation to the punitive effects of ‘cyber bullying’ on those with visible skin problems, especially among young people. Back in my day, I could leave my bullies at the school gates. These days, videos have been shot and shared on social media with messages such as “How dare you come to school with acne as bad as yours, why don’t you kill yourself?” Very tragically, sometimes they do just that!
Finally, on the important subject of fundraising, this is an increasingly difficult task for small Charities. For one such as ours, attempting to deal with the very ‘unsexy’ subject of skin disease, it’s all the more so! Keeping our heads above water, especially taking into account the law of diminishing returns, is a thankless and difficult task. Following a successful career as an innovative entrepreneur, I funded the core costs of the Charity myself, for the first ten years. These days, it really is a struggle to keep going. I have never taken a penny for myself. Since the start, all of our donations, most of which are unsolicited, are what keep us afloat!
I sincerely hope that this summary has given a flavour as to the work that I do, and to just how crucial it is for those who are looking for help and support in relation to their skin problems, can have somewhere they can turn to.
Mr Ashley Medicks.
Founder/Director Skinship UK.
In 2006 I was fortunate enough to win the ‘Beacons of Hope’ award, offered by the Lymphoma Association, in the category, ‘Outstanding Contribution in Care and Support’, and in 2012 was offered the ‘Unsung Hero’ award in the Scottish Health Awards.