Please tell me if I'm being a bit of a hypochondriac. I have major anxiety.
i am a female of 30. I am pretty fair and pale. I've learnt to embrace this as an adult and stay safe in the sun but it was a different story when I was a child and teen.
my mother was and still is a sun worshipper. She'll sit in the sun for hours on end to get a tan, she'll even go as far as smothering herself in oil to sun herself faster. My stepdad isn't much better, his skin is like leather from never wearing sun cream. I've never seen them use suncream between them.
as a child, my mother never really put sun cream on us either. We'd get burnt bad or once the damage was done just get darker and darker. Me and db who is even fairer than me would never be made to wear it, or wear a hat or anything.
as a teen I didn't really know the dangers and would get sunburnt all the time. We were just never encouraged to wear sun cream.
as an adult I don't really like the sun, if I go out in it, I stay in the shade, wear sun cream and cover up.
even though I'm told all the time I'd look better with a tan.
this is my worry - skin cancer.
I know you can't worry about the future. But I know two people who died of skin cancer who were really sensible as adults but had a lot of unprotected exposure as kids which was said to be a big factor. One of them was my partners stepdad. My partner is hot on suncream. Our kids are always protected against the ways.
will it be me? I've accidentally got sunburnt in my adult life maybe 3-4 times but sensible otherwise.
I don't have a huge deal of miles to check but I am very freckly!
My mum is still a sun worshipper and j worry about her exposure too!