This man needed cancer like a hole in the head

[Askance]

@Inna_Minnit

What is cotton wool? Those are two very different things. And most “cotton balls” really aren’t cotton they are synthetic.

@troubledwater

That’s what the British and Australians call cotton balls. I have a vague memory that the terminology has something to do with the fact that prior to the industrial revolution in Britain, their primary fibers were linen and wool, so wool is part of the frame of reference for cotton.

Actually we have cotton balls and, quite separately, cotton wool - which is the same stuff but in bulk (looks like candy floss).

[troubledwater]

Dang, I knew when I posted I’d have missed some nuance. I don’t even know what an American would call the bulk stuff (to distinguish it from cotton balls). I don’t think I’ve seen it sold that way at the drugstore in years.

Sorry for the weird hijack. But unlike the stupidity chronicled in the OP, this issue is resolvable.

[AskNott]

Back to the OP, did the poor guy actually have cancer?

[Askance]

I haven’t seen any more info on it anywhere, but that article says

a lesion on his face, which he believed was cancerous.

which to me says, essentially, ‘no’.