General Chat

Factor 50 suncream in the 50s/60s then I would not have all this palaver with Basal Cell carcinomas (Rodent ulcers).

Please make sure that, even if you are going to the shops you put sun cream on, getting burnt in your 20s/30s/ will mean problems in your 50s and upwards.

;-) very good advice,


i usually use it religiously, to the laughter of my friends, who are all lifetime sun worshippers, iv only really started liking the sun since i went to america, so am not used to being out in it long,

lesson learnt today :-D

Ann...Ive got them things on me 'ead..No 'ats fer me..HAD TO WEAR 'EM IN THE RAF...Not since if I can help it...Had mine frozen off twice but they still come back...Now on 2 creams..Head can't take the icer anymore..It burns awful...LES...

Please ensure that they are treated!

Western Australia has one of the highest rates of Skin Cancer in the world and quite a few young people die each year from the disease.

My own daughter had numerous moles removed from her back which could have turned cancerous. She was 18 at the time and required two operations.

When we came out from the UK we moved to Leonora and encouraged her to sunbathe and get a tan. It was only later that the adverse effects of such actions became the subject of a massive advertising campaign!

Oh, if only I'd realised years ago the damage the sun does to your skin (and it's irreversible). Apart from the risks of carcinomas it's also the way it ages your skin that's bad.

Yes, it looks and feels good to have a nice tan but the best way to do that is to fake it.

I used to be a bit of a sun worshipper but now get sun rash (not prickly heat) when I'm exposed to the sun for more than about half an hour.

Good advice Ann

My fair skinned blue eyed dad would have benefited too had sun screens been available in Palestine during the war years in the RAF - the only time in his life when he actually suffered from sun burn.

The Squamous Cell Carcinomas didn't appear on his face until the 80s, after lots of nagging he eventually went to our GP who suggested " removal with a pumice stone" too little too late he received hospital treatment, by which time his lungs were also damaged and he died at 68.

Early treatment is very successful, I would urge everyone to see their GP at the first opportunity and get checked out if a mole looks unusual.

Slapping on the sun cream and avoiding over exposure is the best answer,

My Mother was abaout 34 when we came to Australia. Her childhood & teen years were not spent sunbathing (in Scotland?!), and she didn't lie out in the sun in Australia.

Mum had skin cancers removed (lasered?) when she was in her late 60s. She said it was years of facing up to the sun when hanging clothes on the washing line!

:-0

I don't sunbathe, the last time was in the mid 1980s; but I have stripe marks on my feet (where the sandals go).

I see men & woman with terrible sun damage, they look like old boots. The scary part is that they refuse to see a doctor, they say they'd rather not know!

Our local medical clinic does skin checks... we get a reminder every year.

Please listen to all the advice.. my son as just had a cancerios mole removed two days ago... hes had a skin draft from leg ..he came out of hospital yesterday .. he phone me yesterday after he had it done ... i told him 3 months ago to get it checked out .. so i nagged him again on his last visit ..so he went.. im so glad he did.... he as never sat in the sun without a factor 40/50 ..he as fair skin and never bothered with sitting in sun ..

My granddaughter is also seeing hospital this week she as a nasty mole on her upper arm.. ..she as been to Lanzorote twice a year since born ..always creamed up..she is twenty..my fingers are crossed she will be ok ..


jgee..

I hope she will jgee.

A friend of mine who lived in Africa for a while and has had a permanent tan ever since from sunbeds has had to stop using them as she has had several dodgy moles removed in the last couple of years. She is 13 yrs younger than I am but her skin is like leather. For a beautician she was a bit daft!

I used to lie in the sun a lot when abroad but don't think I got really badly burned. I am planning to ask my doctor next week to check my back for me as I can't see that bit and it's a waste of time asking o.h. to look, he wouldn't remember what stage things were at or anything useful.

I do try and wear sunscreen but not for the first few minutes of being outside as I need all the vit d I can get. It's become so indoctrinated in people to slap on the cream that apparently many folk now are vit d deficient, so it's necessary to find a safe and happy medium.

Take care folks,

Lizx

Thank you Liz..

Your OH sounds like mine ..lol

It is best to get checked out.. i dont sit in sun ..but i burnt eyes and nose last week while on a few days holiday i never put cream on .. like you i need all the v d i can get ..

The reason i dont sit in sun is ..it makes my psoriosis worse ..

jgee

OH had to see a dermatologist 3 weeks ago - he had an odd 'blister' type thing on his bald pate.

He was assured that it wasn't a cancer but was given cream to put on which would bring up other lesions on his head.


My word!!! His head now looks as though I've hammered nails into it...... :-0


Neither of us are sunbathers, but it just goes to show how important it is for men with thinning hair to keep a hat on in hot weather.


Seeing so many older folk with wrinkled, leathery brown skin, makes me thankful that I prefer to stay 'pale, but interesting'. ;-)

As most know we go to Tenerife for 4 weeks at a time. I always put on factor 50 then 30 later. I am very brown but have not been burnt for many years. But when a child and teenager I can remember being burnt, we lived near the sea and were always on the beach. When I was pregnant I got my legs very burnt, they blistered from just an hour on the beach. I have had 2 basal cell carcinomas removed from one thigh (small ones, one by cutting out, one with cream).

I had a largish one removed from my trunk 5 years ago, that was a big one with about 15 stitches and was done under general. The rest are done by my dermatologist consultant who is lovely. Had one cut from my shoulder and a couple scraped from my back. And yes Les, one frozen from my back and that is more painful than all the rest to have done.

But the strange thing is that at least one was where the sune has never been so I do wonder if there are other causes. e.g. One definitely started when biological washing powders first came out in the 70s, started as a red patch and nothing done until this year.

Some which are spotted early have been treated and removed with Aldara cream, a laborious but good treatment.

Basal cell rarely spreads to other organs as full blown cancer.

I have many many moles and try to keep an eye on them.

i dont like sitting in the sun even on holiday, i need to be doing somthing,
mind without the sun i cant sit in, i need to be somewere i dont like just sitting around, i get bored easy lol

ill defo cream up today, but my redness is much milder today and im not feeling so hot,

studys have shown even with suncream, you get enough vitaminD that is needed, experts recommend you never go in the sun unprotected, so needing vitaminD is not an excuse to go uncreamed, as has been suggested

Also, be careful with what clothes you wear. You can still burn through some fabrics. OH was out one very hot morning wearing a very thin, loosely woven, cotton shirt. His chest was red within half an hour (he is the red haired, pale skin type).

And wear a hat. It amazes me when in Tenerife and Lanzarote the number of families I see where none of them have hats on, not even the children.

I must admit I never wear a hat, but when on holiday little man knows no hat no going out, I'm not as strict over here as he had never burnt as I keep him creamed n hydrated

In my post above I should have said, on the beach. Does his school make them wear hats when they go out into the play area in the sun?

nope, they do the younger children,

I only go for ten minutes without suncream, and always wear a hat in very hot sun as my hair is thin and I don't want my scalp burned. O.h. is pretty bald (well it's not pretty lol) but is a devil for refusing to wear a sun hat so his head is like a bit of old leather. He did have one small mole cut out so should know better.

Lizx

And please do not forget your your sunglasses.

The UV light can cause permanent damage to the back of the eyes even for children and may cause problems in later life.

This is just as important as sunscreen.