Swimmer Mack Horton won a gold medal for the 400-meter freestyle at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Not long after the competition, Horton posted several photos of himself to Instagram, including one without his shirt. He was later contacted by an official from the Australian swim team who said a fan had noticed a mole on his chest had grown larger and darker.
The sharp-eyed fan, who remembered a similar photo from 2012, contacted the swim team with a comparison shot of Horton’s chest between that time and now. A mole on the upper right quadrant of his chest had clearly changed over the course of four years. Horton decided to visit a doctor to have the mole checked out. Although it turned out to not be cancerous, he had the mole surgically removed to preserve his health. He took to Instagram after the surgery to thank the person for being so observant and possibly saving his life.
Skin cancer is very common in Australia with about 66 percent of the population expected to have some form of the disease by the age of 70. Most cases are the result of extensive exposure to the UV radiation that comes from sunlight.
