Sun teens warned: Tan now, pay later
JILL Kuhn is paying the price after tanning in the sun as a teenager.
She’s warning young people to be sun smart to avoid developing skin cancers later in life.
New research from the Cancer Council reveals a quarter of Australian teenagers are getting burnt each weekend.
Alarmingly, despite the Cancer Council’s campaigns over the years the rate of teens being burnt has not dropped in 12 years.
Ms Kuhn, 76, remembers rarely putting on sunscreen in her youth, but believed it lasted all day when she did apply it.
“When I was about 30 I had a skin cancer removed from my left eyebrow which left a scar, shortened my eyebrow and made my eyelid droop, then five years later another on my right eyebrow.
“I ended up with funny eyebrows which no teenager wants.”
She’s warning young people that sun damage when you’re younger will come back to haunt you.
“You don’t notice the damage until you’re older, that’s the hard part. You can get out there and be beautiful with a tan but when you get into your mid-20s and 30s it starts showing,” she said.
Cancer Council Australia Public Health Committee chair Anita Dessaix said the high rates of young people getting burnt was warning enough that something should be done.
“The findings from the National Sun Protection Survey are extremely worrying. Over half a million teenagers are getting sunburnt on an average summer weekend – increasing their risk of getting skin cancer in the future,” she said.