ABC meteorologist Sam Champion revealed he recently underwent skin cancer surgery and showed off a large scar on his return to the network.
The GMA host, 63, thanked fans for their support and announced that doctors diagnosed him with nodular basal cell carcinoma following a biopsy under his right eye.
Champion said the cancer operation was not his first bout with skin cancer after previously being diagnosed when he was 20, and blames it on years of tanning and sunbathing.
“When I’m not telling you the weather, I like nothing more than being outside,” she said in a recent Good Morning America clip. “I have no way of even counting how many times I got scorching sunburns.”
ABC meteorologist Sam Champion revealed he recently underwent skin cancer surgery and showed off a large scar on his return to the network.
Champion showed himself undergoing Moh’s surgery to remove cancer cells from under his right eye and urged fans to get checked if they notice any questionable marks.
Champion had surgery on his right cheek earlier this month and shared a series of tweets showing his recovery from the operation after having his stitches removed.
He underwent a treatment known as Moh surgery, in which surgeons remove thin layers of skin one at a time and analyze them under microscopes, continuing until only non-cancerous cells remain.
Champion said on social media that he received three rounds of surgery and admitted he was “disappointed” that surgeons had to go deeper after they left him with a large scar on his face.
‘I didn’t want all that. “I didn’t want a big hole, and now I’m going to have a big hole,” he told X in a video.
“I’m not going to enjoy having a bigger scar than I thought I was going to have, but that’s how it is today.”
She later shared a picture of the post-op scar and stitches, and urged fans to “take care of your skin and ask your doctor to look at anything that doesn’t look right.”
Champion said he underwent three rounds of surgery on the spot and admitted he was upset because the surgeons went “deeper” and left him with a “big hole.”
The GMA host shared his scar recovery and insisted that “the scar is not the problem, the problem is the skin cancer.”
Champion added that after Moh’s surgery to remove the cancerous spot under her eye, her surgeon also performed laser surgery to target the darker, precancerous skin around her face.
It showed areas where doctors used a CO2 laser to remove marks that, if left untreated, could have turned into more skin cancer.
Returning to Good Morning America after weeks off the air to deal with her surgeries, Champion said, “The scar is not the problem, the skin cancer is the problem.”
“The next phase of my journey will be scar care and believe me, there is a lot of progress in that too.”
Speaking about the emergency surgeries, Champion took to Instagram earlier this month and admitted he was “overwhelmed” by the diagnosis.
“Mentally, yesterday was a difficult day,” he said after surgery. “I must say I felt a little overwhelmed on the second pass, but I think it’s natural and normal.”
Champion had previously shared his fight against skin cancer earlier this year, including removing several cancerous spots from his left eye in July when he shared an image of himself with a circular bandage on his cheek.
While Champion blames years of tanning for his bouts of skin cancer, he said he is now more careful than ever about protecting his skin from the sun.
Champion had previously shared her fight against skin cancer earlier this year, including removing several cancerous spots from her left eye in July.
He shared an image of himself with a circular bandage on his cheek and again urged fans to get checked if they notice any questionable marks.
‘For about 30 years now, I’ve been reminding you to have a doctor periodically examine areas of your skin that just don’t look right! I’ve had dozens of skin cancers removed, most of them simple basal cells… Today a biopsy of this one under my eye!’
While Champion blames years of tanning for his bouts of skin cancer, he said he is now more careful than ever about protecting his skin from the sun.
I haven’t done that in years. “When I’m in a beach chair, I have an umbrella and my sunscreen,” she said in a social media clip.
“Now I’m going to be very careful about sun exposure,” Champion said. “I don’t think it’s legitimate to sunbathe while lying in the sun like a lizard, I don’t think that’s been part of my recent past and it won’t be part of my near future either.”
