Varifocals gave me melanoma
Glasses magnified intensity of the sun
A TOP beautician contracted skin cancer when her varifocal lenses acted like a ‘magnifying glass’.
Jo-anne Jewett, who counted Princess Diana and Madonna among former clients, was shocked to find she had a melanoma after living in Greece for a year.
Despite using a high UV protection lotion, Mrs Jewett, 57, contracted the tumour when the skin just below her eyes was burned by magnified sunshine. She had also assumed the high-end eye cream she had used for over 30 years contained protection against harmful rays.
‘I’d put some very expensive eye cream around my eyes thinking it had a sun protection factor, but it didn’t’, she said. ‘I’d missed one bit.’
‘I couldn’t believe how stupid I’d been, me, someone who prides herself on knowing how to look after her skin.
‘I wore ordinary varifocals, not sunglasses, so the sunlight went straight through to the unprotected skin around my eye.
‘My consultant said the varifocals acted like a magnifying glass, increasing the intensity of the sun’s rays.’
Varifocals lenses combine three prescriptions in one lens, allowing people to see at all distances. This means that in one lens the glass is much thicker at certain points.
The mother of two, who spent a year in Corfu in 2008 writing a book on beauty and skincare, said she had managed to miss the area under her eyes while putting on Factor 30 cream.
Unaware of her mistake, she didn’t recognise the warning signs, and visited her GP for an unrelated matter last August.
But Mrs Jewett, who lives with husband Richard, 61 in Parwich, Derbyshire, and has two children Shannon, 20, and Cameron, 28, was told she had a melanoma.
She said: ‘I’d had [something under my eye] for two years and it kept getting bigger and bigger but I ignored it. Ridiculous.
‘It’s horrific when I think about it now. I am normally over the top with skin care. Cancer is sly and clever. I thought it was an innocent white head.’ After a three-and-a-
‘I sit in the shade and wear a hat’
half hour operation at the Royal Derby Hospital, doctors removed the fingernailsized tumour.
Mrs Jewett, who has worked in the beauty industry for 38 years, said it was ‘ironic’ to be diagnosed with skin cancer, ‘ because I’ve always been concerned about wrinkles and my skincare regime is very good.’
She added: ‘I have never ever been someone who sits out in the sun and tans. I sit in the shade and wear a hat so I’m very shocked it’s happened to me.
‘I know it was really silly not to check but I think all face creams should have a sun protection factor.’
Having been given the all-clear, she is keen to make women over the age of 50 aware of the importance of skin protection.
Using her expertise as a make-up artist to stars including Barbara Streisand and Bette Midler, Mrs Jewett is advising older women not to assume that their high-end face creams come with Sun Protection Factor.
Dr Anjali Mahto, consultant dermatologist and British Skin Foundation spokesman, said: ‘Jo-anne’s skin cancer was likely a result of direct UV damage from the sun and a lack of protection around her eyes, as UVA still penetrates glass.
‘The delicate skin around the eyes needs protection from UV just as the rest of the body. It is therefore worth investing in a good pair of sunglasses and using skin products made for this area with SPF.’