I lost my Father to Melanoma a couple of years ago, unfortunately Queensland has one of the highest rates of Skin Cancer in the world. The Slip Slop Slap campaign is now showing results with Sin Cancer rates in people under 40 falling for the first time.
I should add that despite my best effortsin keeping covered with sunscreens, growing up on the beach, plus living and working outdoors on boats to the Great Barrier Reef have caught up to me and I have had my first BCC ( Basal Cell Carcinoma) recently removed from my back along with a number of solar keratose burnt off with liquid Nitrogen from my face and hands. I am now required to have a full skin check every 6 months.
Wow - at least with such regular check-up you can hopefully stay on top of it. When the doctor asked me if I had been in the sun much, I thought well not recently (I had an office job for years) but as a kid, well I grew up on the south west coast of Western Australia. Swimming at beaches was THE activity, everything I did as a kid was outside.
Sorry to hear about your loss @stephen-somers. Skin cancer is a horrible thing. I feel renewed vigour to be smarter in the sun and with very young twin daughters I owe it to them to be vigilant. That Slip Slop Slap campaign (which I saw growing up in Western Australia) was very powerful - I have never forgotten it. Glad to hear there is now positive results in the rates falling.