Eric Gibson
master brummie
When I was about 9 years old (around 1944) the girl sitting next to me in school showed me a mark on the back of her hand and said it was ringworm. When I told my mom she had a fit, saying it was highly contagious, sure enough a couple of days later I had one on the side of my head just above the hair line in the temple area.
I was sent to the school clinic where they sat me in front of an xray machine and zapped me. It cured the ringworm but all my hair fell out and took months to grow back, very embarrassing for an nine year old.
This year I had an itchy spot in the same area and the doc said it was a BCC (basal cell carcinoma), a type of skin cancer which has had to be removed in hospital. I'm told it's a complete cure.
The surgeon says it is a direct result of that childhood xray treatment. Apparently there are lots of sufferers in our age group who were treated in this way and are now getting both skin cancers and laryngeal cancers caused by xray overdoses.
Looks like we were unfortunate guinea pigs for the medical profession. E.
I was sent to the school clinic where they sat me in front of an xray machine and zapped me. It cured the ringworm but all my hair fell out and took months to grow back, very embarrassing for an nine year old.
This year I had an itchy spot in the same area and the doc said it was a BCC (basal cell carcinoma), a type of skin cancer which has had to be removed in hospital. I'm told it's a complete cure.
The surgeon says it is a direct result of that childhood xray treatment. Apparently there are lots of sufferers in our age group who were treated in this way and are now getting both skin cancers and laryngeal cancers caused by xray overdoses.
Looks like we were unfortunate guinea pigs for the medical profession. E.