Teddi Mellencamp has sent Katherine Ryan "some voice notes" after she went public with her second skin cancer diagnosis

Katherine - who admitted she "wouldn't have got checked if it wasn't for Teddi" - told Heat magazine: "She's sent me some voice notes.

"She [Teddi] has such a positive attitude about it.

"She's young and beautiful and has small kids, and she's in a real serious battle now, so I'm just really glad I found it.

"But I was sat in the waiting room and just thought, 'In two minutes, I could find out that I have liver cancer.'

"I don't have anxiety but, in that minute, I was all alone, and I was like, 'Maybe my husband should be here.'

"Luckily, the scan was fine, but I think that does stop people from confronting their health because they don't want to receive bad news.

"But, I'd rather receive bad news than just drop dead one day."

After spotting the mole, Katherine visited a private clinic in South Kensington, London, to get it checked out by a doctor - who initially gave her the all-clear.

However, after feeling unsatisfied with the result, she went back to get tested again, and was informed the mole was early stage melanoma and had it removed.

Katherine - who had a stage two melanoma in her 20s which was diagnosed after she found an irregular mole on her leg - said: "I hope it didn't hurt the doctor's feelings.

"In fairness, it really didn't look like melanoma, but thank God I knew it wasn't fine.

"I think it's important to be really transparent, so that other people can get checked and know what treatment is available to them.

"I wouldn't have got checked if it wasn't for Teddi Mellencamp from 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'.

Katherine added that her diagnosis forced her "to think about my mortality" because of how fast it moves around the body, and that she has lost people in her family "who didn't get a mole checked".

Speaking of her reaction after receiving the second diagnosis, she thought: "At first, I was like, 'Oh, that's fine,' because I've had melanoma before.

"And then I started thinking, 'What if it's in other places that I don't know about?'

"It does move fast - it's not just a regular skin cancer - and it did force me to think about my mortality.

"There are people in my family who didn't get a mole checked, and then they died, so now I am really prioritising it.

"I've gone for so many checks and ultrasounds.

"I have to have an MRI, just to really make sure it's not hiding anywhere."