Tag Archives: Tanning

05.24.12
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Don’t Fry Day! May 25, 2012

The National Council Declares the Friday before Memorial Day, May 25, 2012 is “Don’t Fry Day” To Encourage Sun Safety Awareness.

Take the pledge too!

 Nothing says Memorial Day weekend like trips to the beach, the pool, long hikes, BBQ’s in the park or much-needed R&R! Outdoor activities are lots of fun, but sunburns are not.  The Friday before Memorial Day is “Don’t Fry Day” to remind all those that will be enjoying the sunshine this weekend to take extra precautions and remember sun safety.

Here are some tips to keep in mind.

Do Not Burn.

  • Avoid intentional tanning.
  • Avoid tanning beds.

Ultraviolet light from the sun and tanning beds causes skin cancer and wrinkling.  If you want to look like you’ve been in the sun, consider using a sunless self-tanning product, but continue to use sunscreen with it.

Generously Apply Sunscreen to all exposed skin using a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of at least 15 that provides broad-spectrum protection from both ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB) rays.  Re-apply every two hours, even on cloudy days, and after swimming or sweating.

Wear Sun Protective Clothing such as a long-sleeved shirt, pants, a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, where possible.

Seek Shade when appropriate, remembering that the sun’s rays are the strongest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Use Extra Caution Near Water, Snow, and Sand as they reflect the damaging rays of the sun which can increase your chance of sunburn.

Get Vitamin D Safely through a healthy diet that includes vitamin supplements.  Don’t seek the sun.

Marcia Cross knows that covering up her little girl in UV Skinz is easy sun protection!

 

05.18.12
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MY Story; Rich from Hotel Melanoma

As you will read–everyone’s story is true and unique. Please take the time to learn more about Rich who battles Melanoma and Authors his personal blog, Hotel Melanoma. Thank you Rich for sharing!
Here is Rich’s story…
1. Was tanning or sunbathing a significant factor in the development of your melanoma?
I never set foot in a tanning bed, but outdoor sun exposure was probably a very significant factor.  I was a lifeguard as a teenager and tried to attain the blond surfer dude look, which was a really dumb idea for a freckled pale skinned kid of Celtic descent.  My primary tumor was on my lower side towards my back and that area got a whole lot of unprotected sun in those days.  As an adult, I continued to sit out around the pool and jogged without a shirt during the summer time.
2. How did you diagnosis change your life?
In so many ways for the better.  I was diagnosed in 2003 a couple of days after my 50th birthday, and I guess I needed a midlife slap up the side of my head to realize I’m not immortal and time is and always was of the essence.  Melanoma became the catalyst for me to change some things in my life that weren’t working and needed changing.  The two primary ones were my career and my faith.  I had become quite miserable in law practice, and the diagnosis led me to bail out– I just wasn’t going to spend what could be the last days of my life chained to a desk, dealing with lots of unpleasant people and performing tedious tasks.  On the faith front, melanoma led me to stop procrastinating and decide what I did and didn’t believe.  I ended up converting to the Roman Catholic Church after twenty years of thinking about joining up but never getting around to it.
3. Tell me why you chose your blog name? How long have you been blogging and why did you start?
I think the line from the Eagles’ “Hotel California”– you can check out any time you like but you can never leave– is a perfect metaphor for living with the later stages of melanoma.  Once you become a patient, you’ll always be a patient (unless you croak) and you’ll never be declared “cured”.  I struggle with that, like every other patient.  So, checking into and living at the Hotel Melanoma became a unifying theme of the blog.  I started the blog in March 2010, with a long post that was a journal I’d written over the course of the previous 2-3 years.  I’d shared the journal with a handful of fellow cancer survivors and received a lot of encouragement to publish it.  The idea of publishing my journal as a blog, and continuing to write, came from the encouragement of a development officer at the University of Colorado Foundation.  It was a really big leap for me to expose my soul to the world, but folks told me I had written a great story that ought to be shared.  And I finally worked up the courage to shed my privacy and share it.
4. Is there an inspirational quote or song that keeps you moving forward and gives you strength?
There’s no one quote or song that I could point to.  But as you can tell from the blog, I love classic rock music and lots of songs inspire me to adapt them for life at the Hotel Melanoma.  I suppose if I had to choose one rock anthem for living with melanoma, it’d be Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”.
5. What is the best advice you can give to someone who thinks that skin cancer can’t happen to them?
Melanoma, and every other brand of cancer for that matter, can indeed happen to you and if you’re lucky enough to get old cancer probably will enter your life sooner or later.  So don’t court disaster by taking excessive lifestyle risks, like tanning yourself into a leather saddle.  But you can’t live in fear either.  Don’t hide inside, just wear some clothes and a decent sunscreen so you don’t fry yourself like I did as a kid and younger adult.  Something IS going to kill you somehow, someday, but meanwhile your life is a precious gift from God that’s worth taking some reasonable measures to protect and prolong as best you can.  So I’m doing my best to be livin’ it up at the Hotel Melanoma!
Thanks, Rich
On a dark mountain highway, cool wind ‘stead of hair
Warm smell of new sunscreen, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a hospital light
Lymph nodes grew heavy, prognosis grew dimmer
I had to stop for the fight.There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the clinic bell
And I was thinking to myself
‘This could be heaven or this could be Hell’
Then she picked up a clipboard and she showed me the way
There were nurses down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say…Welcome to the Hotel Melanoma
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
What a lovely case.
Plenty of meds at the Hotel Melanoma Any time of year (any time of year) you can find them here…YouTube Acoustic Video Here

05.11.12
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MY Story; Chelsea From Adventures With My Enemy Melanoma

Today I have the honor of sharing the story of a very strong and beautiful young woman, Chelsea. She is the author of Adventures With My Enemy Melanoma and has been generous enough to give us a glimpse into where her Melanoma diagnosis has brought her. A special thank you to Chelsea!  Please read and share because through the exchange of our life stories with others is how we become complete.

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity —Gilda Radner

This is Chelsea’s story…

Was tanning or sunbathing a significant factor in your development of melanoma?

I grew up in a beach town. Sunscreen was used, but not often encouraged by my friends. We wanted to be tan & beautiful! I have no family history of skin cancer, I am not your stereotypical melanoma patient meaning I have dark hair, dark eyes, and I never had any blistering sunburns. According to my doctors, tanning was definitely a significant factor in the development of melanoma.

How did your diagnosis change your life?

I was only 23 years old when the dermatologist informed me that they mole he removed as a precaution came back as melanoma. They had already scheduled my initial appointment with an oncologist and a surgeon before I was even informed of the scary news. For the next year my life was a rollercoaster ride of surgeries, CT scans, and FEAR. I was only 23, but I was being forced to admit that this cancer, something I thought was just skin cancer, could kill me. Now, for the rest of my life, I have to be extremely careful in every aspect. A swollen lymph node could mean cancer. Every little thing that I used to roll my eyes over is now a reason for concern. Melanoma is not curable.

When did you start using tanning beds and for what reasons?

I am a fair-skinned girl who had been invited to prom by a very cute boy when I was 14. Because I wanted to look as pretty as possible, I began visiting the tanning salon. Everywhere around me, people would say, “You are so pale! You need a tan, girl.” So, instead of embracing my natural skin color, I began tanning.

How long have you been blogging? Why did you start?

I started blogging about a month after I was diagnosed with stage III Melanoma in January 2011. I had a hard time talking about the seriousness of my diagnosis, so one evening as my mom and I were crying on the couch, she suggested I do want has always come to me easily: Write.

Tell me why you chose your blog name?

Adventures With My Enemy Melanoma seemed like a natural fit for my blog. Melanoma is my enemy, but it sure has been one heck of an adventure.

Is there an inspirational quote or song that keeps you moving forward and gives your strength?

“But understand this: my commitment to living in the now means I’ll never ever say that I’ve beaten cancer. To do so would be living in the “tomorrow,” if you will, and melanoma is far too erratic an opponent to go around making predictions. But I can tell you for sure that I’ll never give in to it. Life is too precious to give it up without giving everything you’ve got — now.” Dr. Jack Ramsay.

What is the best advice you can give to someone who thinks that skin cancer can’t happen to them?

I was that girl too. I thought it couldn’t happen to me. Now, something I thought was just skin cancer, may be the very thing that kills me. Protect your skin, it’s your largest organ.

04.13.12
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Modeling Agencies Join Together To Fight The Tan

Models are looked up to for their flawless beauty and bikini bodies. The model image also has a dark side when it comes to being blamed for causing poor self-body image in young girls that has such an effect that it could lead to eating disorders and other unhealthy choices. Another example is that this unrealistic view of models and what is fashionable can give girls the idea that a tanned and unnaturally bronzed skin is beautiful.

According to legend it was Coco Chanel that first popularized the sun tan. From then on the year-round tan has been a staple of model beauty. Luckily, people are learning that using tanning beds can increase your chances of melanoma by 70%. Now Kate Moss modeling agency Storm has joined forces with other modeling agencies in the UK to raise awareness about the dangers of sun bed use and to put tanning out-of-fashion!

“In an anti-sunbed campaign, 11 of the UK’s leading model agencies have signed up to the cancer charity’s mission to counter the fashion of sunbeds, declaring that they will ban their models from artificially tanning and refuse to represent those who use sunbeds.”

The agency Storm hopes that by joining the Cancer Research UK campaign, people who have been stubborn in believing scientific facts about the dangers of tanning bed use will be persuaded by an example set by the fashion industry that tanning is not stylish.

“The charity has teamed up with the Sk:n chain of clinics to offer free skin-scanning sessions throughout February to highlight hidden sun damage. “The idea is that a sunbed user may go along to a skin clinic with their auntie or mum, someone who may ‘an influencer’ for their sunbed use,” said Dr Claire Knight, senior health information officer at Cancer Research UK.

The campaign is targeted at all ages, she said, but stressed that the evidence shows that using sunbeds at a younger age can be ‘significantly harmful’.”

This is huge! So many young people are directly affected by the media and to have a top model and other models join together to fight the tan is a step in the right direction. The World Health Organization characterizes tanning bed use as a human carcinogen that 30 million people in the U.S. expose themselves to, yearly. This disease doesn’t just affect Americans. The UK has noticed the cases of melanoma quadruple in the last 30 years and  is the second most common form of cancer in 15 to 34-year-olds.

No tan is worth your life!

I haven’t heard any other news about the steps that have been taken since the announcement of this campaign in February, but I hope in the near future we get to see how it unravels.

 

 

 

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/17/sunbed-kate-moss-campaign-dangers?newsfeed=true

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/health/534944/kate-moss-agency-to-raise-awareness-of-sunbed-dangers.html

03.30.12
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Melanoma Awareness Video Contest

With so much talk of all the wrong teenagers are doing; tanning too much, staying out too late and just overall rebellion. It’s nice to hear of the good that some teenagers are doing. Teenagers that are positive healthy role models like Camille Smith, a high school junior, who founded a charity called SkinSavers to warn people, especially teenagers, about the dangers of tanning booths and the sun. Her charity is undertaking a new and more social media aware approach to spreading awareness, a YouTube video contest! SkinSavers raised “$1000 in prize money that will be awarded to the creator of the Melanoma awareness video on YouTube that gets the most views” during the next two months.

“The rules are fairly simple,” explained Smith, “once you register the YouTube video you create with SkinSavers, the person or team who creates the video with the highest number of views during a two month period wins.”

“The video simply has to inform students about Melanoma, and not break any copyright laws.” Smith explains, “Kids ignore adults who say tanning can be dangerous, but it really can be deadly. To the degree people know about Melanoma they don’t think it is a serious cancer, because they think it is a ‘cut it off and you’ll be fine’ kind of cancer. Unfortunately, if Melanoma isn’t caught early, it is a very deadly skin cancer.”

SkinSavers Foundation hopes to receive dozens or hundreds of videos for the contest, and urges people of all ages to participate. The contest will run during a two-month period from 5 pm (Eastern Time) on March 15th, 2012 to 5 pm on May 15th, 2012.

More information can be found about the foundation and contest at SkinSaversFoundation.org.