I would like you ALL to read this blog before the hot weather, and make sure your children are protected

[sausagepastie]

Sarah Toller

This is something I have been reading for almost a year since my best friend was diagnosed with melanoma.

I don't want anyone not to know the dangers of sun exposure in children, because it's in the earliest years of childhood that the seeds for melanoma are sown.

It's such a common cancer in the 20s and 30s, and even in the teens. People need to protect their kids, NOW, and still I see children with sunburn every summer.

Please read as much as you can - the story is heartbreaking, but so powerful. I think Sarah would want as many people to see it as possible.

Thankyou.

Actually start here

That's the beginning. You can see by the first link how it ended.

Please read it all if you have time.

This is worth reading, honestly.

thanks, i read that with interest. i always think i should be doing more in the hot months, sometimes a bit half hearted about suncream. esp in england .

Even if you protect yourself you can get them, always look out for odd skin patches, my friend who NEVER gets in the sun had a flaky thing on her lip that turned out to be malignant, no colour, just wouldn't go away. Had to remove much of her lip. Anything odd that won't go away check it out...

No I am crap with using sunscreen even on my little one...it wasn't until last year it really hit home. Glad people are reading it.

Gah
cant do american/candian

what do you mean?

That's devastating sausagepastie

thanks sausagepastie

very shocking

a good lesson

my mum had a melanoma removed a few years ago. my kids are all fair hair/blue eyed. schooldays are a nightmare, the freckles started again last week!! last week it was still blinkin' well freezing how can the sun already be bringing out their freckles! anyhow, we use all day cream on school days - that way it lasts over lunch at least and hopefully into the 2 pm break as well. I'd like them all to wear hats in summer - should bring it up as a school uniform policy I spose

Sanfairy I am dreading the summer with school, as well. It's so hard to make sure they stay protected all day. Does anyone know where to get the all day stuff? And how long it atcually works for?

Puiz buin all day is amazing. It really does last all day, DP & I use it in Greece and truly only apply it once even though we swim in the sea.
You can coat them in it in the morning & I promise it will be there at night if you don't wash/scrub it off.
Good Offer

Thank you for posting that, Sausagepastie.

I think that the awareness of the dangers has improved a lot in the past few years, but we can always do with a reminder.

strewth that is a shattering blog. So very sad for her loved ones. What an awful waste of a life. I use the all day stuff for school and hols - that's given me a good reason to keep doing so.

There is alsothis that I found very moving. A real cautionary tale, as she is very much 'one of us' - and her family are desperate to use her story to raise awareness of sun protection and skin cancer risk.

I'm very strict with my own dc but I mysself grew up in a very hot country. One year, when my Mum was visiting home, I got serious sunstoke. My brothers have big sun spots on their backs. Worrying stuff.

Notyummy, how sad. It seems that a lot of people who have melanoma are young mothers in their 30s...it seems as though pregnancy can encourage melanin production, or something, it suppresses the immune system as well so it's not unusual for a mother of young children to be diagnosed.

Earthymama thankyou for the link, I was just in Boots this morning but the bottles of the all day stuff were so expensive...I think I might send ds in with some of the usual stuff, and instruct him how to apply it himself at lunchtime.

hopefully the other kids will be doing the same.

Notyummy - that BBC article you linked to is about my GP's wife. Really sad...

just about to read the links here....but wanted to add that it's also important for us all to get our vitamin D. This comes from being in the sun, so surely being slathered in suncream is going to result in deficiences ?

Rather than being covered in suncream, surely schools should be adding shaded areas to the playgrounds, putting up gazebos for sports days, making sure kids wear wide brimmed caps & sunglasses. Any suncream that covers the lips is going to eaten off at lunchtimes & lips/shoulders/nose are very vulnerable.

Riven, very bad that your daughter was sothoughtlessly left in the sun. Have you written to remind them to take care of her this year ?

Very sad sausage.

As a mother of 3 living in the tropics, my dc wear sunscreen when they go to school almost every day. At kindergarten they reapply it and they are only allowed out to play with a hat on. Most of our dc understand the need to play in the shade.

At prep school the dc's are encouraged to put it on themselves, which they do do, pretty well. They also are not allowed out to play/sports unless they are wearing a hat.

We do have the all day stuff, but it is not infallible and often needs re applying especially during swimming.

We have an extra concern, that the chemicals in suncream especially the all day ones, may cause our dc long term damage as no research has been to done to ascertain whether there are any long term damage from using sun creams.

My DD is fair skinned and red-haired and I find that keeping her skin covered - long trousers and tops, sun hats always in even moderate sunshine and keeping her out of the sun helps - how quickly and easily she burns is a good reminder of how dangerous the sun can be.
The nursery she goes to are really good about sun safety and have a stock of hats and put sunscreen on every time they take the kids out in the summer. This is in West Yorkshire too, so not exactly tropical.

All such stories are sad but let's just be a little realistic, less than 10,000 cases are diagnosed PER YEAR in the uk. That means about one person in 6000 and MOST can be cured so please don't get all Mumsnetty about Melanomas. There's a bit of risk in everything -even plastering skin with sunblock. So please, please, please be a little bit sensible about assessing such risks.

'Don't get all mumsnetty'???

I don't suppose it would make any difference whatsoever if I told you my friend is in the final stages of it, having been diagnosed only 9 months ago, and probably going to leave two small children motherless?
No I didn't think so.

She is 34. I know she isn't the only one, and cases are rising every year.

Nobody is becoming hysterical. I don't think any of us anticipate getting cancer when we are in our early thirties. It is wise to be vigilant, is all.

Feelingforty, no, it's unlikely to result in deficiency.

All you need for vitamin D is about 10 minutes of sunlight on your forearms, per day - you can always get this level of exposure by accident, really.

I would like to add I have no idea if alias' figures are correct or not, but I do know melanoma is one of the fastest rising cancers in young people, and the biggest killer in women aged 20 to 39.

Breast cancer gets a lot of publicity and rightly so; melanoma gets very little. Just trying to up that a bit i suppose.