I have just read your article on sunbathing in WDDTY (vol 12 no 4) with great interest and fully agree with you.

As to basal cell carcinoma, I had one of those rodent ulcers surgically removed some two years ago. The NHS consultant didn't want to deal with it straightaway, although it would have taken her only half an hour, and wanted to put me on a long waiting list.

So I panicked and had it removed privately. Cost ? £800. This shows how expensive this sort of thing is in this country!

About four weeks ago, I accidentally discovered another one of those 'rodent ulcers' on my arm and a much smaller one on another part of my arm.

I was going to the GP, but since I very much believe in alternative solutions, I thought I'd try aloe vera skin gel first. Quite frankly, I didn't believe for a minute that it would actually work, but I thought that since this is one of the carcinomas that doesn't spread, it can't do any harm to experiment a bit, and that it wouldn't matter if I didn't go to the GP straightaway.

And now, would you believe it, barely a fortnight after I started to put the gel on, both of the lesions have completely disappeared! The smaller one disappeared in a day or two and the rather big one disappeared within a fortnight just peeled off in the bath and beautiful new healthy skin has grown underneath.

The gel I used is Aloe Gold, the ultimate aloe vera skin gel "the highest potency aloe available" from Higher Nature, Burwash Common, East Sussex TN19 7LX.

I thought this might interest you and your readers, especially since I know they treat this type of skin cancer successfully with pharmaceutical creams in America, where the diseased cells are also supposed to "peel off", which is exactly what happened with my aloe vera gel treatment!

I hope this may be of use to some other people who suddenly discover they have a 'rodent ulcer'. BB, via e-mail.......

WDDTY replies: We pass on this story, but also suggest that any readers undergoing a similar treatment have any carcinoma checked out professionally to make sure that it is completely gone.