The sun Down Under has led to an explosion in skin problems

Australia has given us lots of things over the years.

It’s provided the world with Kylie Minogue, Vegemite and never-ending TV soap, Neighbours.

Its population has also inadvertently acted as a sort of mass experiment to find out what happened when a lot of fair-skinned Northern European people moved to a life of higher sun exposure.

Unfortunately, although Australia has thrived, it turns out folk sharing our genetic heritage are vulnerable to the powerful sunlight.

While the indigenous people with darker skins are much less affected, the white population developed a high rate of malignant melanomas.

This is a form of skin cancer mainly brought on by exposure to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight.

Rates in Australia are the highest in the world – but they’ve more than doubled in the past 20 years here in the UK too, to about 9000 new cases each year.

That’s partly because of the popularity of those dreadful sunbeds – but also the increasing number of holidays in the sun we’re all taking.

It’s not the total amount of sun that causes malignant melanoma, but rather sunburn. Exposure to too much UV light damages our DNA, and this damage can eventually lead to a malignant melanoma appearing. Any suspicious mole should probably be looked at by a professional.

When it comes to identifying a possible malignant melanoma, there are a few warning signs that warrant further investigations.

If two sides of the mole don’t match, its edges are blurry and uneven, has a variety of colours, is bigger than 6mm or is changing size, shape or elevation, then it needs a closer look.

In addition, I want to know if the patient has experienced episodes of sunburn – especially as a child – or has been using sunbeds.

I’ll often ask them if they have a family history of malignant melanoma, and check whether they have lots of moles.

These increase the chance of being vulnerable to them.

The good news is that surgical removal of malignant melanoma is quite successful, if caught early enough, and three-quarters of folk have no further problems.

Still, wearing broad-brimmed hats and slapping on the sunscreen are definitely recommended.