To think skin cancer is becoming more and more common

[Halibaloo]

2 people from year group at school have recently announced a melanoma diagnosis? I see so many posts about this too. Anybody else feel the same?

I think all cancers are becoming more common due to early detection .

I do think you get to about 50 and you are extremely lucky not to know several friends / family with it. For me it seems like every other week someone else has it and currently on the 2WW myself. It's terrifying.

How old are you OP?

I think the boomer generation have had a lot more skin cancer due to the growth in overseas holidays in the 60s/70s/80s, the fashion for having a sun tan, use of sun beds and lack of high factor sun screen usage. My 70-something step-mother has had two patches of skin cancer removed from her face and I can't say I'm surprised. I never saw her apply any sun screen when we were on holiday and she used to let her skin blister with sunburn when I was a DC.

I’m 31 and so embarrassed to admit I used sunbeds in my teams and early 20’s…stupid woman!

Just be vigilant with checking your skin once a month OP. So many people have used sun beds (I wish they could be banned) but most of them won't on to develop melanoma. A friend of mine had melanoma very young and had never been burnt or used sun beds.

A quick look at the Cancer Research website tells you that melanoma cases are predicted to rise to 32 cases per 100,000 people by 2035. So to find 2 cases in a year group is unusually high.

I'm 55.
Mum sent us out to burn at the start of the summer to toughen up our skin.

I think that as long as you didn't burn on the sun beds it's not a greatly increased risk.
Burning is the biggest risk indicator, if I remember correctly.

The thought of it terrifies me as I’m so pasty I’d burn under a lightbulb 😩

I shudder to think of the damage all the sunburns I’ve had might have done. I’m very moley and I do check them all fairly frequently but I’m still anxious about it.

Same here OP!

I know women in their 30s and 40s who still use sunbeds..

It’s the exposure to UV rays that’s the issue. Sun beds deliver high doses of UV rays. You don’t have to burn to suffer damage to your skin that could potentially lead to skin cancer. Obviously the risks are greater the longer you’ve used them for. Op I would be extra vigilant about checking your skin regularly.

I'm mid 40s and have an appointment with a dermatologist this month to check out a suspicious growth. Child of the 70s , 80s where burning and peeling skin off was part n parcel of a holiday!

I know people that still use them now, wouldn’t touch them at all now but being a self obsessed young woman I thought I knew best. Could kick myself for it.

It feels like cancer in general is absolutely everywhere at the moment.

Are we just learning the symptoms earlier and getting them checked out? As obvious the survival rate has increased massively

To know two people of your age group with melanoma is very unusual.

I know several people who have had skin cancers removed but all much much older (70+) and none of them melanomas.

There was another guy I know of who died from it not long ago and he wasn’t 40! Tbf they all seem to have the same skin type, gingery freckly etc. He also worked outside a lot in the sun.

I've had aggressive BCC resulting in surgery to repair extensive damage to my face and currently waiting for biopsy results for a small lump also on my face.

It's not dangerous like melanoma can be but seeing my face after first op and looking like I'd gone through a car windscreen, I know that I will have to be very aware of any lumps or changes to my skin.

I'm fair and blue eyed and have Celtic family background, so high risk unfortunately.

@Coastalcreeksider sorry that happened to you xx

Thank you Kalogravysucks🙂

I do think a lot of it is subbed/sun related. No one I know has ever had skin cancer. Glad it’s being picked up quickly.

I'm surprised I haven't had any issues. Fair skinned too, burned a lot as a child and I have a thing on my face that every specialist I've been to says isn't skin cancer but don't seem to know what the hell it is. It's not growing though so guess it isn't, but still wish they knew what it was.

I've never had bad sunburn, but I am prone to moles. Once a year I see a consultant who checks me top to toe for any changes to existing ones, or any new ones. On average I have three surgically removed each year, of which one is usually pre-cancerous. Increased screening is probably leading to higher detection rates, but also, get yourselves checked!

I'm in my fifties. I've had skin cancer, so has DH, so have several friends, also one of my kids, two of our parents had it repeatedly. Hopefully people will stop worshipping the sun and getting burnt

Yep! And you still have countless people saying suncream is unnecessary or outing tiny amounts on once a day.

In my mind, so many cancers are not preventable, I know women who have died of breast cancer so young it's tragic. If putting cream on reduces my risk of this cancer I'm doing it! And I'll look youthful too!

My step daughters are in their early twenties and (despite us vehemently discouraging them) they and all their friendship group hammer the sunbeds prior to their holiday and then lie out in the sun on holiday to get as brown as possible. I am so worried for them.

I know of 2 older people and one younger (30s) who had a it removed from her face. She’s never used a sunbed.

i have a weird thing on my arm I’m thinking I should poss get checked out. It’s like a dry skin circular lump I’ve had for about a year. It kind of goes really dry and scaly then comes off and is sore then repeats the cycle again. It’s not a mole though so I don’t know if it needs looking at

I've never used a sunbed. Probably sunbathed/burnt once when I was 12 or so. From about 14 I actively avoided the sun as much as I could and used sun block religiously. Now I live in a country with very high uv rays. In my 50s I got a basal cell carcinoma on my temple and pre-cancerous changes along my hairline. A plastic surgeon had to revise the original scar the dermatologist made and I used prescription strength retinova on my hairline to get rid of whatever was brewing. The moral of the story is that this could all have been avoided if I'd worn a hat as well as all the sunblock. Hats are a lot cheaper than a plastic surgeon.