Skin Cancer and Melanoma

Skin Cancer and how it can affect you.

Melanoma's are more likely to kill your average water-man or water-woman than the extreme sport they partake in, white pointers or taking that fatal wipeout.

Australians have a very high rate of skin cancer, something like 1 in 14 Males and 1 in 24 Females of the population will get a melanoma in their lifetime (to 85).

Melanoma's are deadly if not treated correctly. One of the worst things that can happen is late discovery where it simply becomes too late. They can be small and look almost benign to the average person. They can appear anywhere from the crack of your ass to the eye and everywhere in between. They have many shapes and sizes and not all are that obvious.

I urge all those that visit Seabreeze to read the following Seabreeze Kitesurf Article written by some who have had the shock of discovering melanoma.

www.seabreeze.com.au/Articles/Kitesurfing/Skin-Cancer-Melanoma_4176560.aspx

Then want more info have a browse through:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanoma

www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/types-of-cancer/skin-cancer/melanoma.html

I have had a Melanoma and many other lesser skin cancers removed. My younger brother died from Melanoma this year after a life of surfing.
Watching him go through the cancers progression from melanoma to it spreading to his bones, lungs, liver and brain and finally causing his death.
It is a horrible disease and it certainly is not a nice way to die.

But it is very preventable and can be treated well if caught early.

Always cover up, wear sunscreen, hat and use sunglasses. Avoid the most severe UV part of the day.

Get a regular check from your GP and if there is ANYTHING at all suspicious get a referral to a dermatologist. These doctors usually have a waiting list of sometimes many months. If you suspect Melanoma time can be of the essence for your ultimate survival.
If you have spent years surfing, kiting, windsurfing, boating, fishing, baking unprotected in the sun or you have light caucasian skin you need to be very weary about this disease.

I just hope this message gets though particularly to some of the young crew out there first staring out kiting, surfing, sailing. This is the forgotten time in the sun that can later come back to haunt you, like it did me.

Only this year another guy I knew died from getting one on his retina, and he was a doctor. This disease does not discriminate.

Sunglasses are a must particularly while sailing into the sun every afternoon here in the West.
I continually read about the problems encountered with kite/sail boarders and sunglasses.
My solution to this is simple and CHEAP (but not all that fashionable). Go to the local hardware store, buy a pair of cheap UV resistant safety glasses (sunnies). Make sure they are one piece wrap around with fixed nose/lenses and rust resistant plastic hinge. Coat them with Rainex Windscreen treatment, (wipe off quickly before it wrecks plastic). Use silicon tubing on sides (hobby shop supply) so they don't slip off after a face plant.You should be able to do all this for $10. Keep a couple in your sail bag.Will give clear vision that beads the water spray off and saves your eyes from sunburn and salt spray. (Just keep the sunburn cream of them).

These things even work reasonably well even in the worst of surfing wipeouts, just tie them on to your wetsuit zip cord if you cant afford to loose them.

Hope this gets a few of you out there to check your skin and some of your friends as well. Its the spots that you can't see that can be the problem.

Went for my yearly check up last week ,
all good except for some little shyte on my arms, he burnt that off with his little squirter.
Asked about my shift to exmouth in a few months, and to my surprise was told that we will be much safer up there in the sun with no sunscreen (though he didnt recommend not using sunscreen) than we will down here in Perth WITH sunsrceen ON , I thought this was rather scary news!
cover up boys!!!

Having had many suspicious spots either cut out or burnt off I've come to the conclusion that it won't be the last either. So every year I religiously go see my Doc for the annual "Slice and Dice".
Skin cancers can be so dangerous if left that my own view is "when in doubt get it cut out". You have got to get it done by an appropriate doctor and have whatever cutout sent to a Pathology LAb. for analysis because if it is bad they usually go back in there for some more flesh.

gs12 said...

got one cut out earlier this year, I hope that's the last one, got me s**t scared to be honest, luckily I got it in time (they call it stage 0) and it didn't go anywhere. now I apply lot more sunscreen, using long arm rashie & helmet (going to buy full length summer wet suit) and I avoid being outside (including sailing) in the middle of the day & early afternoon.

On advice from a doctor few years ago, I took a picture of suspicious looking mole at regular intervals + annual checks organized by work. This year I went to skin clinic, they checked me out, said all was good, take care & come back in 6 months.
While I was almost on my way out I showed them the pics I took in the past so they had one more look. Errr, it got bigger they say, let's take it out just to be sure. They did and few days later I got a call to come back have some more taken out Luckily it was very early stages...

When I thought about it afterwards, I realized they wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't showed them the pics

I'm being treated by a dermatologist instead now, had full body pics taken and I'm going for check ups every 3 months..

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to get this checked regularly & taken out early!

Not so surprising, last checkup I was sure I would get zapped all over melon and arms etc but doc found 2 suss ones on my chest which has been covered by a rashie for years. One was fine but other bad but he got it all. Couldve been waiting to strike from 30 years ago.
Just get checked and dont do the old Oz "she'll be right"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

check this out I tried the natural way to get rid of cancer and it worked fine for me www.doctorsaredangerous.com

Where is the best place to get a check up? I went for the first time to... They seem to be quite thorough? But I walked out of there feeling like I needed a second opinion. Does anyone in Perth have a good referal?

I think the main factor would be that at Exmouth in the summer months, not many people are out in the sun in the middle of the day.
After about 10.30am, it's so blistering hot, everyone is either out of the sun or very much covered up.
The same applies to all those North West towns. It's so dammed hot outside that even things as dumb as the lizzards know that they need to get out of the sun in the middle of the day.
Unlike Melbourne or Perth where after 10.30 am on a hot day, everyone is stripped off and lying on a beach somewhere.

Interesting.
I agree that even in autumn and spring I can feel the sun bite my back on sunny days in Perth.
Unfortunately, I don't remember if that was always the case or not. Maybe my memory cell is fried.
I sort of thought that maybe it always did and I only became more aware of it with all this talk of skin cancer over the last 15 years or so.
I know that when I was a kid no one cared less about it. We all just went down the beach and got subburnt,.. every weekend!
And for sunburn cream, mum used to rub a bit of olive oil on us. None of this fancy SP30+ stuff. So we basted like chickens on a rotisserie unitl we were red all over and then went home.

I had a couple of quite bid f(-)ckers cut out of my left hand this year by the quack at the skin cancer clinic. He put me onto a course or Effudex cream to address the myriad of remaining small ones on my ears, head and face.

I was really reluctant to use the stuff because of the side effects which he warned me about, that is that there is a possibility of open sores and a general leper like appearance. Anyhow I got up the courage and used it without too much drama. I did look a little more ragged than usual but the end result was pretty impressive in that everywhere I treated is now crust free.

Since using it I came across chlorine dioxide on the internet which appears to do a better job on the ones I missed. It is supposed to be a brilliant cure for sunburn which I can vouch for. I treated a case on boxing day that looked as though it would result in some pretty impressive blisters. The pain was gone in twenty minutes and the following day there was just a slight red tinge.

It is also very good for burns and bad breath.

^^^^^ That was hardly called for.

Thanks buddy.