Are you Skin Cancer Savvy?

[Mark Bolam]

I like being out in the sun.

Like most of you I bet, I've got a classic 'farmers tan' of brown arms, face and neck, and I'm pretty crap at sunscreen at work.

I'm good when I'm on holiday or stripped to the waist though, and factor 30 means I can go longer without getting burnt, so that must be good right Tom?

The amount of skin cancer clinics in Oz put me off real leather man tanning years ago.

Get some clothes on.

 

 

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[skyhuck]

A very good friend of mine had very olive skin, black hair and went very brown, he loved the sun and loved to work outside with his shirt off. He had skin cancer removed from his face twice and recovered well. He then developed stomach cancer and died aged 71.

 

He had always been very fit and healthy, never over weight and extremely active.

[Katie at FoxMedics]

I would think surely if you work outdoors your Vit D levels should be quite sufficient. Checked the NICE guidelines which many medical practitioners would follow and also for public to use and it does say Vit D from the sun is good for the body but also states the levels of sun people should receive has lots of variants depending on skin type, if you already have 50 or more moles, time of day, family history of melanoma etc.. Shade is better than sun cream, although sun cream should still be worn. UVA sun cream not just UVB. The typical British red tan is not good for the skin and if my doctor or dermatologist told me to cover up then I would be following those instructions rather than Google. Research is fantastic but it's 30,000 different individuals if all different demographics and possibly countries with different levels of sun, skin types, work back grounds etc. research is needed of course for medical advancements but until the medical practitioners pass on this information then findings are not a complete conclusive to not wearing sun protection.

[Billhook]

A very good friend of mine had very olive skin, black hair and went very brown, he loved the sun and loved to work outside with his shirt off. He had skin cancer removed from his face twice and recovered well. He then developed stomach cancer and died aged 71.

 

He had always been very fit and healthy, never over weight and extremely active.

 

 

There must be a compromise here.

 

It cannot be good to lie in the sun all day by the beach, (or the beech!) and have sunburn and it cannot be good to avoid the sun altogether in some form of paranoia.

 

Exposed as I am both in farming and wooding, I find that my poor nose bears the brunt of the attack of the sun's rays, it can go very red if I have not taken precautions and everyone thinks I have a drink problem!

This is amplified by its angle to the sun and by the lenses of my glasses.

 

So a hat and a dollop of factor 40 there first thing and maybe a bit on the forehead and just rub the excess on my hands onto the back of my hands.