Grange Hill legend Lee MacDonald, 56, who played Zammo, reveals he has been diagnosed with skin cancer after noticing an 'unusual spot' on his face

Former Grange Hill actor Lee MacDonald has revealed he has skin cancer. 

The actor, 56, announced that he went to the doctors over concerns about an 'unusual' spot on his face, only to be told it is cancerous.

Viewers know Lee best as teenage alter-ego Zammo, whose hard-hitting storylines broke TV boundaries in the mid 1980s on Grange Hill. 

Lee wrote: 'Went to the doctors today to check an unusual spot on my face! Doctor says it’s cancer! 

'As we older please keep an eye on anything unusual and hopefully get it looked at early!!! Booked in to get it sorted over the next couple of days!' 

Fans took to the comment section to share their well wishes. 

They wrote: 'Glad you got it checked out - here's to a speedy resolution' and 'Thank you for highlighting this Lee. Good luck to you over the next couple of days!' 

'Hope all goes well Lee. It’s good you got it checked early!' 

Lee's Grange Hill character Samuel Maguire was fondly known as cheeky chappy Zammo, who attended the fictional north London school between 1982 and 1987.

The actor featured in the show's most famous - albeit controversial - storyline when Zammo spiralled into an addiction to heroin, which climaxed in an overdose scene.

Despite the shock factor, Lee and his cast members helped to spearhead the anti-drugs campaign Just Say No, by releasing a charity single which was a Top 10 hit.

However, speaking in 2007, Lee said he subsequently struggled to get acting work in his late teens because of his negative association with drugs.

'After [the new series] was out, my agent said "Nobody wants you any more because it’s a drugs related character. So nobody wants to use you," he told fan site Grange Hill Gold.

'I lost loads of work because adults didn’t want me at the club because it was drugs related. But that’s the power of telly . . . More so in the 80s when there was only a couple of channels. '

'Things were taken a lot more seriously than they are now. There’s so much stuff that kids watch now that is outrageous.'

Since leaving Grange Hill in 1987, Lee enjoyed cameos in The Bill, Birds Of A Feather and Neighbours, 

Lee went on to become a locksmith and open his own store before returning to the soap world in 2019 as bus driver Terry.