My grandmother died from skin cancer.
I was quite young, under ten, but that was plenty old enough for impressions and memories to gather for a lifetime: the blemishes on her face and arms, a Lazy Susan on her dining table with several of those ‘7 days to a week’ pill containers to divide medication. Frail, I only ever remember her sitting, never moving.
My father – her son – consequently, as you can understand, was particularly zealous in his application of sunscreen to both my sister and I as children; this was when we were little, in the eighties, and meant a heavy top layer of zinc across our noses, thick then like putty, like clown makeup. And it stunk. This was back in the day when sunscreen as low as SPF 4 (even 2?) was being sold.
We endured it without (much) complaint, because there was always the unspoken potential consequence: “You don’t want to get cancer like Nanna”.
Fast forward, I recently made a mistake I’m still kicking myself about. When we were at the beach last month, I let Keira apply her own sunscreen on the first morning, thinking she might be old enough to handle that responsibility. She was, but she missed a large patch on her back that she couldn’t have reached and I thoughtlessly didn’t check to see had been done. We were out longer than usual as well, exploring, and by late that afternoon, as she felt unwell and listless, pulled up her t-shirt, I saw that red belt and felt sick. For despite my parent’s covering of my skin, I’ve been burned, mostly in my teenage years when the same responsibility of protecting myself was turned over to me. I knew what kind of recovery she was in for, the discomfort, and resolved that my protective efforts from here on in were going to be doubled.
It’s almost back-to-school time, bringing along with it its own particular challenges. I’m heartened our school – and most others in Australia, I believe – has a vigilant sun safe policy, but I need think about how we get to and from school. I walk with them when I can, and during the hotter months that means significant UV exposure. (As it does when they’re at school and running around before the bell rings for class.) I keep a pump bottle of sunscreen such as you see above by our front door and part of our morning routine is that we cover ourselves with it before we head out (trying to do it 20 min before, ideally). I’ve also kept a smaller, screw lid one in the car for them to use on the days we’re running late and I drive them to school. I have hats and sunscreen on offer for when we come home again in the afternoon (if we’re walking).
I’m trying, I am.
SunSmart also recognises that parents want to do their best for their children, to guide those practices and education for their future health. And I’ve got a great giveaway today, so you can do what we do (or something different, whatever works for you!) Two SPF 30+ bottles of sunscreen, offering four hours of water resistant protection. Have one at home, one at work (look after yourself during lunch breaks too!). Be wise.
Giveaway terms and conditions
1) You must be an Australian resident.
2) To enter you can enter one of the 2 ways below, or both if you like (a maximum of 2 entries):
Leave a comment saying why looking after skin health is important to you.[1 entry]
Tweet the link to this post (button at bottom of post) and come back to leave the Tweeted link in a separate comment (so I can verify).[1 entry]
3) This competition will close at 5pm Friday 7th February.
4) If contact cannot be made with the winner I reserve the right to draw another.
5) The winner will be determined by a random number generator.
Thank you SunSmart. Take care of yourselves, everyone x
Edit: this competition has now closed. Good luck!
