Skin cancer
About 10yrs ago I had to do a chemo cream treatment on my face. All the red, scabby areas you see is the cream pulling pre cancerous cells out of my skin. It was one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to do. I have a huge scar on my upper trunk from melanoma surgery where I had 20 staples. I have a scar on my forearm from squamous cell cancer requiring 23 stitches. I’ve had numerous basil cell spots removed and too many suspicious moles and spots cut off to count. I’m Gen X and we just didn’t really use sunscreen when I was a kid. I started regularly laying out with baby oil and iodine in middle school. I tanned in tanning beds starting in high school, sometimes daily. I never wore sunscreen, EVER! It took all this to make me realize how important it is. I understand the concern about the ingredients in sunscreen being harmful but there are good sunscreen brands out there and it is so much better than the risk of skin cancer. I no longer worship the sun and my skin is so much better. Please wear sunscreen and stay out of tanning beds.
Vulnera
🤍 How I Felt:
🤍 My Takeaways:
Reflecting on my own journey with skin cancer, I can truly say that prevention is key and understanding the dangers of sun exposure changed my life. Like many in Generation X, I grew up during a time when tanning was glamorized and sunscreen was often overlooked. I used baby oil and iodine to get a deep tan throughout middle school and relied heavily on tanning beds in high school, sometimes daily. It wasn’t until I faced painful treatments, including chemo cream to remove precancerous cells and surgeries leaving scars from melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma, that I realized how serious the consequences could be. One of the hardest lessons was overcoming the belief that sunscreen ingredients were more harmful than the sun itself. Today, there are numerous safe and effective sunscreens available that protect without compromising your health. Wearing sunscreen daily, even on cloudy days, and choosing products with broad-spectrum UVA and UVB protection can dramatically reduce your risk of developing skin cancer. Avoiding tanning beds is another critical step. The artificial UV rays they emit are intense and have been linked to an increased risk of melanoma—a dangerous form of skin cancer. Tanning beds damage skin DNA just like natural sunlight but often at a higher intensity, accelerating potential harm. Regular skin checks, both at home and with a dermatologist, are essential for early detection of suspicious moles or spots. Early treatment can prevent pre-cancerous cells from progressing into serious cancer. Sharing my story, I hope to encourage others to take sun safety seriously. It’s never too late to start protecting your skin. Sunscreen, protective clothing, shade, and avoiding tanning beds together provide the best defense against skin cancer. Your skin—and your life—are worth it.