Chris Capstick, 41, from Merseyside, noticed what he first thought was an insect bite on his back while getting married in Greece, which later turned out to be cancer20:18, 10 Aug 2026Updated 20:23, 10 Aug 2026A dad has told how he was given months to live after an "insect bite" on holiday turned out to be skin cancer.‌Chris Capstick, 41, from Bromborough, Merseyside, got married to his wife Lauren, 30, in Greece, and it was there that he first noticed the mark on his back.‌He first though it was an insect bite during the 2022 trip to Greece and he says that he went back and forth to his GP practice over the next six months as it was changing colour.‌Chris claims that doctors told him it was a cyst, a round lump, often filled with fluid or pus which are usually harmless and often do not need treatment but it turned out to be skin cancer.“I got married in Greece and that’s when we noticed the 'insect bite'. Doctors told me it was a cyst. I went back several times as it changed colour and started to grow, and they kept saying it was a cyst," he told the Liverpool Echo.‌"Then I was in work and it was quite uncomfortable. I got speaking to a colleague who said that her husband had a cyst removed in their GP surgery. So I went back and asked the GP if they could remove it, which they did in February 2023. As soon as they removed it, I think they noticed it wasn't a cyst and sent it off for testing.”Chris was then diagnosed with stage four melanoma or skin cancer. Stage four means the melanoma has spread to parts of the body away from the original cancer and further than the nearby lymph nodes.He was sitting with Lauren, who was pregnant at the time, when he received the news that his chances of survival were just 15%.‌Chris had his lymph nodes removed and spent 13 months on immunotherapy. He was briefly cancer-free at the start of 2025 but just six months later, six tumours were found on his brain with another six in other parts of his body, meaning his cancer was terminal.Chris who now has three young children - Isabella, six, Mila, 10, and Nylah, two - with Lauren, said: "I was given 10 to 12 months to live. It was a massive shock for me and the family. We try to stay positive. I'm trying everything. I'm trying red light therapy, oxygen therapy.‌"I've just done a stint in the hospital, just due to some side effects. My liver enzymes are quite high at the moment, so I've not had treatment for two months. We're trying to get them down via steroids. I’m trying to stay positive which is not always easy."Just over a year on from being told he had a year to live. Chris now doesn’t know how long he has left.He said: "I had six tumours on my brain. Five of the tumours have disappeared, there's just one left on my brain now, so something's working, hopefully. At the moment I haven't got a prognosis of how long I can live."‌Isabella, has written a children's book, Daddy's Little Monsters, to help other children understand a parent's serious illness. Over £630 has been raised so far to print and distribute the book to cancer centres, hospices and Maggie's Centres across the UK.Chris said: "We really struggled to explain it to all our children. My wife spent some time with Isabella, and she explained that daddy's got monsters in his stomach and planned to use medicine to kill them.Article continues below"Then she did some sort of art therapy and created the book over six months and published it via Amazon. To date, we've sold just shy of 300 copies."We've dropped copies in Arrowe Park, Clatterbridge, Maggie's Cancer Centre in Wirral and Lancaster Oncology. It would mean everything (to have the book across the UK). It’s my legacy in a way."