Slip, slop, slap chaps

Men urged to get sun smarter

MEN are being urged to swallow their pride and slap on some sunscreen after it was revealed fewer than one in three regularly do so to protect themselves from the sun.

They also spend more time outdoors and exposed to UV, despite knowing the risks.

The revelations, from a recent national survey, have prompted SunSmart Victoria to launch a new action campaign pleading with men to take sun exposure, and the risk of skin cancer, seriously.

In Australia, melanoma kills more men than women every year with about 891 men estimated to have succumbed to the deadly disease in 2020.

The campaign, called Same goes for you, aims to teach blokes to look after their skin the same way they would their car, deck or barbecue.

Craig Sinclair, head of the prevention division at Cancer Council Victoria, said while men were good at looking after their children’s skin, the ongoing culture of complacency about could be “deadly”.

“I think there’s a lot of the ‘she’ll be right’ attitude and potentially a misunderstanding that what was important as a kid or a teenager in sun protection … isn’t later in life,” Mr Sinclair said. “And I think that ‘she’ll be right’ attitude also comes through in detection, men are not as likely to go to the doctor and they’re diagnosed later which means the outcome isn’t as good.”

their own

Mr Sinclair said about 2800 melanomas were detected in Victoria each year, but the message still wasn’t sinking in.

“We know young men — the teenage years right though to early 40s — are at a key time where they aren’t following the best sun protection advice,” he said.

“The first signs of sunburn can occur in as little as 11 minutes at this time of the year — and this campaign really comes at an important time as more people are spending time outdoors, particularly this coming week.”

Armadale man Sam King, 27, said being sun smart was something he was “always mindful of”.

“I’ve got fair skin and I’ve got a family history of skin cancer so it’s something that was drummed into me from a young age,” he said.

Minister for Health, Martin Foley, who has allocated $4m to SunSmart campaigns, said skin cancer was “highly prevalent and can be very harmful, but it’s also largely preventable”.