Skin cancer is not something to take lightly, Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world. The sun is much brighter and more intense in Australia than it is in the northern hemisphere and depending on the altitude where you live you are more exposed to the uv rays the higher the altitude and like the article says clouds make no difference.
Not all cancers look like cancer as the article states, my husband’s melanoma looked like eczema at first but it got bigger and bigger and more aggressive looking, resulting in a deep surgery scar 9cms x 7cms, that has to be covered when outside. I intuitively knew that it was melanoma but both my husband and the doctor said it was a type of eczema. I made my husband go back and get it rechecked and see a specialist. This took two years to get this diagnosis as my husband kept letting it go, he had a skin puncture biopsy that tested positive to stage 1 melanoma in situ. Surgery was booked in quickly up in Sydney because we couldn’t get into a surgeon in Canberra.
Both my husband and I avoid the sun because we are both fair skinned and neither of us like the heat. We both grew up in Sydney in the 70’s and 80’s. Schools did not have the sun smart rules back in our day either. So it was walking in the full sun to and from school daily and no shelter from the sun in the school playgrounds back then. Not just that, my husband is like many people who drive with their arm on the windows of their cars while driving. All that sun exposure adds up over a lifetime. I had a little mole burned off my nose last year because I was worried it might be something nasty, then one burned off my right forearm a few months ago because it was itchy. I do cover up in the sun and wear a sun hat, sunglasses and sunscreen, but that doesn’t guarantee that one won’t get skin cancer.
Avoid being in the sun between 11.00 am to 4.00pm as much as possible because that is when the sun is at its most powerful. Wear sleeves like the cooling sleeves sold on eBay when your out in the full sun, there are some really cool looking ones out now. I bought a few different ones with patterns and some plain ones for being out walking. If ladies don’t want “hat hair” use an umbrella or parasol, they come in trendy patterns now too.
The scars from surgery aren’t sexy and they are very sensitive to sunlight. You don’t generally just get melanoma once, it does come back and that’s why they do a mapping of your lymph nodes and put a little tattoo on your body where there was a lymph node of concern. Then the follow up examinations to make sure that there isn’t anything else growing. Don’t be fooled into thinking it only happens to older people, it happens at any age.
Be safe and be informed, and don’t be fobbed off by a doctor that is instantly dismissive, as a google search will clearly show the numbers of people that have been misdiagnosed and had cancer after doctors have said they are too young or they are paranoid. Be responsible for your own health and wellbeing and be informed in serious health matters such as this, there is no second chance.
