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?

Having watched my mum die from malignant melanoma 20 years ago (having never been on a sunbed in her life), I very much hope it’s being picked up earlier and treatment is advancing. Why anyone would go on a sunbed in this day and age is utterly baffling to me. Not worth the risk.

Sounds like what I have. No one knows what it is and don't care either.

@Ship. Please get that checked. Basal cell cancer and the slightly more serious squamous cell carcinoma do not involve changes to a mole like a melanoma.

I'm waiting results of a skin cancer biopsy. 38 never been on a sunbed, never burnt in my memory but what my parents did with me as a young child I've no idea and apparently quite a few heat waves back in the 80s.

There is a history of death from malignant melanoma in my family.
I know it's not hereditary, but I'm so scared of it that I've never been checked out. I am fair and freckled. Burned several times as a child. I have all sorts of spots, marks, patches etc on my skin. My head is firmly In the sand to the extent that I don't know which are new and which might have grown.

I'd love to think that this thread has shamed me into taking action and facing the fear. But I honestly don't know where to start - do I just go to a GP and ask them to look me over?

I don't know but my son was dx with melanoma last year at 26. I also know a few other people in the last year but they are much older

@Gazelda

I have skin like yours. One on my arm was changing a little, so I visited the gp. Referred to hospital as it looked potentially cancerous. The hospital cut it out and it ruined our to be benign after all.
While I was there they gave me a once over and checked my numerous other moles and freckles.
I may see someone annually to put my mind at rest. Privately I'd needed. Can't see it would be extortionate for one app.

Apologies for typos

@Gazelda can I suggest that you put your mind to rest and go and get your whole body checked. I am like you in that I've got all sorts going on with my skin and I was worried. A proper 30 min check by an expert made me feel 100% better and I felt really good that I'd addressed my concerns. I'll be doing this every year now as I've always felt like a prime candidate for skin cancer and want to stay alive for my child.

www.check4cancer.com/

Thank you @whoopdedo you're right. I've just realised I have some health insurance cover through work, so I'm going to investigate whether I can access an examination through that.

You should hopefully be able too as that's what I did. I had a mole of concern basically (and generally worried about lots of my skin). Good news was that I was cleared at the check up.

Could it be seborrheic keratosis, those are not malignant.

Got to watch that ahit.

I guess maybe skin cancers might be increasing, it sounds like some of them are but I don't know anything about it, but besides questions of actual incidence and prevalence, information plays a big role in this.

Twenty, forty, sixty years ago, if you got skin cancer (or anything else) there was no way to instantly share this information with everyone you knew at school, all your old university mates, all your friends, and everyone you've ever known well enough to add them as a Facebook friend.

And culturally, people probably wouldn't have wanted to either — I've known people with skin cancer who only told very close family that they had a bad mole cut off, not sharing it outside intimate circles and often preferring not to call it cancer (or their doctors were euphemistic with them).

So someone who was like you in every way, but living in 1990, may well have had just as many people who were at one point a part of their life and who got skin cancer, but would never have known about it.

I've had melanoma (though mine wasn't sun related) and so joined various melanoma communities - I've always been careful in the sun but now I'm extra careful, it can be a very nasty disease and people don't take it seriously enough. I'll be sad when my regular skin checks end, I think I'll pay annually to see a dermatologist once they do.

I think you are right. Unfortunately I love sun bathing even though i know the risks. I keep telling myself i need the vitamin D.

Will be more careful after reading this.

My skin burns easily so I stay out of the sun. I take high dose vitamin D daily. There’s no need to expose yourself to risk to keep your vitamin D levels up.

Does look like that actually. Well looks like unless I can afford private it's staying there, nhs don't care. It's non malicious and doesn't spread.

@whoopdedo how much is it for the initial check?

I believe rates of skin cancer are indeed increasing and predicted to rise further with climate change / hotter summers.

Oh gosh I'm so sorry I can't recall. It was covered by insurance so may have paid a bit towards it but I don't recall.