Childhood sunburn from the 80s

[Iceniii]

I use to burn a lot in the 80s and probably 90s. DB and I use to have competitions on the largest piece of skin we could pull off. My nose use to peel dreadful. Having watched a non blood relative die of skin cancer, does anyone else really worry? I don't think my parents knew about suncream and if they did it would be factor 6 or 8 once a day. I use factor 50 now but think the damage has been done.

My parents were more sensible than some, so we did use suncream and didn't go on super hot beach holidays, but I am very fair and still burnt on occasion. Several times on my back - I used to do swimming training 4 times a week in an outdoor pool as a teen, so had permanent swimsuit marks burnt in for years!

In the last few months I've been anaesthetising for a plastic surgeon doing skin cancer resections/reconstructions. Some patients around my age (37). I'm finally off to the GP next week to get two dodgy moles on my face/scalp looked at.

Yes to all of this. There was an attitude that burning was inevitable and a precursor to tanning which was of course a goal to work towards with all one's might.

I worry about it sometimes and in fact got checked out and got some really useful information about different types of moles and growths.

does anyone else really worry?

Yes, me. A lot.

I got my back really badly burned as an adult back in the 1980s (accidentally, I wasn’t sunbathing). The skin was hanging off. I was sent home from work because I was struggling with the pain.

Yes I remember we started our holiday with factor 6 then moved in to 4 then 2! I don’t remember there being higher factors and the thinking was you had to burn a bit to then tan. Awful really.

I wonder when we will start seeing skin cancer rates fall? When was factor 50 introduced? A guess we all travel more though. Hopefully our children will be more protected.

I definitely used to burn a lot as a child. Also used to love peeling the skin off. I look back in horror now but I think awareness and education around sun safety was just so different / lacking.

I mean it was called (or at least commonly referred to as) Sun Tan Lotion (my gran still calls it this) and I think I remember we barely had it above factor 10 or 15.

I also used to use sun beds as a teen with my mums blessing.

Sun safety is one of those things that improves quickly, like wearing seatbelts or baby car seats, and we all can’t believe how negligent we were before

No I don't worry but I do get my moles checked out. I got burnt so much in the 1970s and 80s and I am so careful with my own children as, as well as the obvious health risks, sun burn is just so painful. I don't really understand why people didn't try to avoid it more. It's not as if I ever tanned anyway!

Factor 4-15 advertised in the 80s

If I don't end up with skin cancer at some point in my life it will be a bloody miracle!

When was factor 50 introduced?

Factor 50 doesn’t give you much more protection than factor 15.

98% vs 93-94%

I remember burning so badly I had blisters all over my back and shoulders. I'm so pale I'm almost blue!

SPF as we know it now wasn't really around in the 80s. I think we all burned, even those of us who had UK holidays. My first memory of buying and using sunscreen was late 90s, before that I just don't think it was on most people's radar. I certainly remember at least one incident of nasty sunburn in the late 70s. I think there's probably a population in their 40s with skin cancer in their futures sadly. I try and check my moles regularly, that's all we can do.

My DH was diagnosed with skin cancer last year and he'd had numerous incidences of sunburn as a child through the 70's and 80's. He's very much a shade seeker abs always applies suncream and reapplies throughout the day.
Our children burn so easily so I do worry and also seek shade try not to be out between 10-3 when it's at its worst .Unfortunately when they are school I'm trusting the children to reapply when necessary before I get shot down the once a day stuff just doesn't work for us.

I do keep an eye on moles - and the one on the back of my neck, I get DP to keep an eye on.

Sunblock was very well known by the 80s - my mother didn't believe in it (she had olive skin whilst I was the irritating pale skinned, freckled kid who keeled over in the heat as soon as it got over about 16 degrees and always insisted that if she could tan beautifully with just cooking oil, I definitely didn't need 'overpriced muck' or a hat for days out) - and neither did one of my exes, who grew up going on holidays to the hottest places possible, armed with just Ambre Solaire oil to make sure everybody knew they'd been to Morocco.

He claimed that getting as much sunburn as possible, a minimum of six hours out, on the first day of sunshine meant that it would teach your skin not to burn and you'd tan for the rest of the week. I do remember him having a very dodgy looking, unevenly shaped mole on his back, but by the time I noticed it, he'd turned out to be a dick in more ways than that (the 'people only get ill because they want to be, disability is always due to lack of moral fibre' type), so I assume that somebody else has drawn it to his attention by now.

I think I had 3 severe sunburns in all, as in blisters all over, headaches, shivering, sheets of crispy skin breaking off in one due to the lack of sunblock, but I've never been on a beach holiday, so I've not done a fortnight every year for 40-odd years to increase the likelihood as much as some.

As things go, I keep an eye on them, but I don't actually worry about it, as if they change, I'd be straight down the GP wanting a referral. I can't change the past, I just have to be aware of any changes.

Yes, I got burnt loads of times, really badly a couple of times. I’ve been worried for years and think it’s only a matter of time.

One of the many things I’m very grateful to mum for is always making sure we were protected as kids, either with sun cream and/or we had to wear a T-shirt over our swimming costumes
I got a bit pink several times, the kind that goes to brown the next day, but have never peeled and certainly never blistered
I’m pale skinned and moley

I was diagnosed with melanoma in May, had a wide excision of and lymph node biopsy in June. I definitely link it to vacations in Florida and Hawaii. Also from “ laying out” in the 80’s trying to tan my vampire pale skin.

Slap on that sunscreen, people.

@SecretWitch sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Were your biospy results okay?

I think I was lucky in that my Mum must have been more aware or sensible than some as I remember being creamed up before we left the house and then often popped in the shade of the windbreak on the beach with an oversized shirt or spare towel on or draped over me like a mini tent (primary age in 70s).

I think my first burn was when I was around 14-15 and I fell asleep in the heat of a summers day, my own fault. It was sodding sore and I was pretty careful from then on.

I do remember tales of school friends coming back from their first holidays abroad (Spain, Greece, France) about epic burns and days spent feeling sick in hotel rooms. Im quite glad now we couldn't afford to go abroad at that time!

Grew up in Australia in 60s and 70s. I burnt every bloody year, the worst at 16 when me and a friend were talking to boys and we fried. Thinking in I probably should have gone to hospital. My sister is still there and just had her second treatment in ten years. I’m factor 50 now.

@Doodahtee, my lymph node was clear! I’m so very grateful for the result. Thank you for asking☺️

I’m really surprised by this. I was born in 80s and always remember being covered in sun cream… I thought it was more like our parents/grandparents who got burnt

Oh tha agony of sunburn as a child and teen on holiday, I’d be red raw, a few years ago I got burnt again it’s agony it really, but I don’t worry needlessly over it.

It’s obviously not ideal you have burnt as a child de ages ago, and of course monitor your moles carefully.

But it was nothing unlike as dangerous to burn then, as it is C now, when there is so much less protection from the ozone compared to how much there was in the 80s

No skin cancer thankfully but goodness yes summer sunburn every year. The pain of the burn on your back and shoulders, the peeling. The agony of the strip of arse cheek/top of thigh burning on the beach in your swimsuit. As an adult I've hardly ever had any sunburn, just the odd occasion getting caught out or a patch where I have missed a bit applying cream and my kids have pretty much never had it, my youngest has gone a bit pink a couple of times catching me by surprise as he seems to be very sensitive. On the beach they wear uv tops and swim shorts, they have big floppy hats etc. Thank goodness attitudes have changed.

My parents weren't too bad- they did cream us and give us t-shirts, but there was definitely a 'getting a tan' culture. The times I burned badly as a child were when I was relatively unsupervised- e.g. running around an outdoor pool all day with friends; a friends' parent would never think to remind you about cream. Suncream was also loads more expensive then and I don't think people used enough. I grew up by the sea but we used to spend most of the summer in wetsuits which helped I think. There wasn't any judgement if you let kids burn and most people kept calamine in for that purpose.

The worst burn I had was in my early 20s on a dive boat where I burned to an absolute crisp in the 30 minutes it took to get my gear off and have a cup of tea (I am very pale). I do watch my moles and freckles quite carefully. I'd like to get them mapped really.

It's DP I worry about more- he had a basal cell carcinoma removed a few years ago, and approaching 50 has only just started to treat the sun with respect. All his family are olive skinned, love the sun and deliberately try and tan. He burned horribly multiple times as a child. His mum does the 'oooh lovely and brown' thing. I'm fairly sure melanoma will get him eventually. It's also been quite a struggle to change his attitude with the kids and he's not as rigorous as I would like. He wouldn't let them run around all day but he doesn't prioritise it in quite the same way I do.