The importance of being self-aware of your skin cannot be overstated, especially for individuals with fair skin, blue or green eyes, and blonde or ginger hair. While it’s important to stress that this is not intended to offend anyone, these specific characteristics often indicate a higher likelihood of easily burning in the sun. The potential damage from sun exposure is a real concern for these individuals, so taking proactive measures to protect their skin is crucial. From using high SPF sunscreen to seeking shade during peak sun hours, there are various steps that can be taken to minimize the risk of sunburn and long-term skin damage. It’s essential for individuals with these traits to stay informed and prioritize their skin health to maintain a healthy relationship with the sun.

Personally, I’m fair skin, freckles all over, blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair (when I had some!!).

It started one holiday when I reckon I was about 15 so that would be 1979. We were on holiday on a campsite in France and I had met a group of teenagers down to the beach, swimming and generally mucking about. I then fell asleep in the sun on the beach. The next 3 days were agony. I was a water blister from top to toe! Horrendous. That was my first and biggest mistake. There were other episodes but nothing quite like this.

Roll forward to 2013, holidays were about walking and relaxing. Andalucia was the chosen venue this year in a little village near Rhonda called Gaucin. Perfect walking and the property had an infinity pool that had a view over the Mediterranean to Gibraltar! One day, when we had been walking and after a lovely soak in the pool my wife said “that mole on your back is changing and the shape is too. It’s getting bigger!”

Getting back from holiday straight to the doctors and the local dermatology team. It was removed. They initially said it was a Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC)which is just an ugly thing but not cancer. However, once the offending mole had been sent to pathology the story was very different – I HAD MALIGNANT MELANOMA. My life was about to change quite drastically.

After another small operation to remove an area of skin around the original site (wider lesion excision or WLE) I had a consultation with a plastic surgeon to discuss the next steps. Basically I would see him every six months for a routine check of my skin to see if there were any visible signs of recurrence. I always needed to check my lymph basin (neck, armpit and groin) on a very regular basis to feel for “lumps and bumps”.

Everything was going so well – till 2017. After a run I was showering and doing my lymph basin check. I felt a pea sizes lump in my right armpit – there was nothing like it in the left armpit. Here we go………

Fast-tracked into the Dermatology/Plastics team in the local hospital for the lump to be removed and sent to pathology. Yes, it was back after 4 years. So I had to return to hospital for a bigger operation to remove all the lymph nodes from that area. It was about 2 weeks in hospital and I had drains in my armpit for quire a while to ensure that there was no build up of excess bodily fluid. Those drains were grim and not great for conversation!!

As the cancer had spread to my lymph system it has the ability to travel around the body “at will”. I was assigned my Oncologist who has been brilliant (as have the whole team) throughout this ordeal. The plan was for me to see the team every 6 months. There was no mention of a scan at this stage. I was now quite concerned and my head was racing through all those nightmare scenarios that you should try to avoid. You can’t – it’s human nature.

I requested and pushed and pushed for a regular scan – just for my own “peace of mind”. Initially this was declined but I persisted. They said YES after a few months of pushing. The CT scans were every 6 months for 3 years and then annually thereafter for 2 years.

So the 6 monthly scans took me to 2020 – they were fine. All clear – No Evidence of Disease (NED). Great news.

Covid hit and lock down was upon us. The annual scan scheduled for 2021 was harder to organise. Eventually it happened. My health was fine – at least I thought it was! The scan showed a 5cm tumour in my PANCREAS!! Virtually all of my pancreas and my spleen were removed in early September 2021. The operation took 14 hours as the tumour had decided to wrap itself around a main artery. One wrong “nick” – I was gone!!

I’m still here – with a story to tell and a message to try and get across.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHECKING YOUR SKIN (and using sunscreen at all times)

There are some really good ways of checking your skin yourself including the A,B,C,D,E rules

Click Here to see a short video

A is for Asym­me­try

So what does ​‘asym­me­try’ mean, and what does it look like? 

An asym­met­ric mole is one that’s irreg­u­lar-shaped, uneven or lop-sided — you can try draw­ing an imag­i­nary line in any direc­tion through the mid­dle of a mole and then look for moles where one half does not match the other.

In gen­er­al, nor­mal moles are even­ly-coloured in brown, tan or black, and either flat or raised on the skin. They’re usu­al­ly fair­ly sym­met­ri­cal too.

B is for Bor­ders

In nor­mal moles, the bor­ders or ​‘edges’ of are fair­ly round and even­ly formed. If you notice that the edges are becom­ing ragged, vary from sharp to fuzzy, or are notched, scal­loped or blurred. 

C is for Colour

Moles can be all sorts of dif­fer­ent colours – that’s quite nor­mal. Most com­mon­ly, they’re an even­ly coloured spot on the skin, either flat or raised, round or oval. They can be flesh coloured, tan, brown or even black – and they can also dark­en over time or from expo­sure to the sun.

You should also watch out for:

• Moles that are large and brown­ish with dark­en­ing speckles.
• The pig­ment of a mole or spot that’s spread­ing from the bor­der into sur­round­ing skin — see ​‘B’ is for Bor­ders above.
• Dark lesions (unusu­al areas of skin) on the palms, soles of your feet, fin­ger­tips, toes, or in your mouth (see 8 places you would­n’t expect to find skin cancer).
• Spots under fin­ger­nails or toe­nails that are chang­ing in colour – or a dark stripe run­ning through a fin­ger­nail or toe­nail (that’s not caused by trau­ma to your nail).

As most of us know, peo­ple with fair or very pale skin (par­tic­u­lar­ly those who have a lot of moles and freck­les), are most at risk of skin can­cer. If you have olive or dark skin, your risk is reduced – but remem­ber that low risk doesn’t mean NO risk. Peo­ple with dark­er skin can still get melanoma – in fact, Bob Mar­ley, died from a melanoma on his toenail!

What’s more, dark­er skinned peo­ple often aren’t as vig­i­lant about wear­ing sun­screen and oth­er sun safe­ty pre­cau­tions as those with paler, freck­li­er skins, so their skin can end up with a lot more harm­ful sun dam­age over time.

D is for Diameter

When it comes to moles and oth­er spots, size does mat­ter – espe­cial­ly a change in size. The gen­er­al rule is that if a mole is big­ger than 6mm (i.e. the size of a pea or the eras­er on a pen­cil), it can be a warn­ing sign of melanoma. The ear­li­er melanoma is detect­ed, the bet­ter, so don’t wait for a sus­pi­cious-look­ing mole to grow to 6mm in size.

Dan­ger­ous moles com­mon­ly tend become big­ger in size over weeks or months – although con­verse­ly, they can become small­er as well. Both changes are a cause for con­cern. One impor­tant thing to note is that dan­ger­ous moles also tend to grow uneven­ly and have ragged or uneven borders.

D also stands for ​‘dark’. No mat­ter what the size of a spot, if it’s dark — or grow­ing dark­er — it can be sign of melanoma. A tiny but very dark spot can be very dan­ger­ous, so if you notice a spot like this, it’s impor­tant to get it checked out as soon as possible

E is for Evolv­ing (or Ele­vat­ed)

As we age, our skin is con­stant­ly chang­ing. It’s all just a nor­mal part of get­ting old­er, but, when it comes to moles and oth­er spots, change isn’t always a good thing.

Moles usu­al­ly emerge in child­hood and ado­les­cence, and change in size and colour as you grow. New moles can also appear at times when your hor­mone lev­els change, such as dur­ing preg­nan­cy. They can appear any­where on your body, alone or in groups.

The appear­ance of a new mole or spot, or a change in an exist­ing freck­le or mole, can be an ear­ly sign of a melanoma.¹ The change may be in asym­me­try, bor­ders, colour or size (see A,B,C,D above) and nor­mal­ly occurs over sev­er­al weeks or months. Oth­er changes to watch for include itch­ing, bleed­ing, ooz­ing or crust­ing – these are the most con­cern­ing of all the melanoma warn­ing signs.

F is for Firm

Nodu­lar melanoma accounts for about 15% of melanoma in Aus­tralia and New Zealand⁵. This type of melanoma can affect any­one, but is gen­er­al­ly much more com­mon in men over 50 and those with fair skin

Here is a link to Melanoma UK skin care information.

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