UK skin cancer rates ‘catching up with Australia’, as doctors sound the alarm

14 comments

1. There’s another really good skin cancer charity hoping to promote early detection with loads of information called skcin.

   https://www.skcin.org

2. Doesn’t surprise me. I’m constantly amazed how blasé so many Brits are about the sun. Same with the heat. We just don’t take either seriously as a threat at all.

   With climate change, we’re really going to need to change these attitudes.

3. It is weird that there is an increase considering over the last 10 years or so there has been a massive push of skin damage awareness along with much more emphasis on protecting oneself and staying in the shade. Could there be other factors (pardon the pun) involved? For example skincare cream ingredients increasing sensitivity to sunlight, similarly dietary supplements doing similar. Or maybe the ingredients of the sun protection creams themselves?

4. I don’t see why VAT needs to be removed. You can get CE approved spf50 UVA + UVB suncream for £2 from Lidl. Boots starts at £4 for a comparable product. How much is an ice cream or coke on the beach? On the LBC show people were making out sun cream was a luxury item and was unaffordable. Well at the top end, it is, but the cheap stuff does exactly the same job.

5. I went to the drs multiple times about a mole I was worried about. Every time, ‘it’s fine.’ I have close family members with a history of skin cancer and cancerous moles.
   Last year I went and this time said it’s suddenly got bigger and changed shape. ‘Come back in 6 months and I’ll check again.’ I didn’t wait that long, I saw someone else and they said they would need to justify referring me, and hopefully my family history would be enough.

   It was quite quick from there on and it was removed within 6 weeks. It wasn’t cancerous but it was abnormal and more likely to become cancerous.

   Maybe if going to see a GP wasn’t a challenge in itself, and it wasn’t such a battle to get referred for anything.

6. Because people think they have skin is tougher than the giant ball of fire in the sky.. 🤭

7. I’m strict about applying sunscreen especially for my daughter. Whenever she has friends over I don’t allow them out until they’re protected. Often they’ll be surprised as their parents don’t bother.

   I had a friend die at 40 of it, and he attributed it to frequent sunburn as a child.

8. Aussie but Londoner of 20 years here. I visited a friend on the weekend who has moved to Provence, France. She had me walking about for hours in the middle of the day – for the first three days. I cracked it on the first day “you’re crazy! This should be illegal! My skin, arghhhh, mad dogs, etc AND Dr Michael (RIP) Yes, I had sunblock, hat and water. She thought nothing of it. Also the doctors here pull faces and say “don’t worry about it” when I ask them to check my sun spots & blemishes. Shrug.

9. Given we are regularly seeing 30+ temps, it’s not surprising. 

10. Cuz brits go to Spain all the time and come back looking like carrots lol

11. It would help if you could just get a skin check easily. I’m a super pale ginger with a history of skin cancer in the family. I have to check myself and ask the to then check specific spots that I’ve been able to see and identify.

12. Doest suprise me . Us brits don’t respect Sun

    You go on hoilday and everyone trying to get protection either shade hoping, wearing uv protection clothing or sun cream , avoiding mid day sun

    We just sit out and bake

    I also know so many people my age who use sun beds regular and don’t care about risk

13. We don’t get the sun often so we try to maximize our time with it. Most people will want a tan and so will either not use sunscreen or a low spf.

    We also need to boost advertising for sunscreen and have it readily available by the tills etc.

    I’m lucky. I hate going outside so it doesn’t affect me 😂

14. We need to stop treating it so lightly, stop just thinking of it as “sun burn” and start calling it what it really is, it’s a radiation burn. I’d wager people start treating it a lot more seriously if people’s attitudes change to consider it that way.