‘BEING BRONZED MADE ME FEEL ATTRACTIVE’
Susanna Hancock, 52, is a business consultant and lives in Manchester with her husband, Keith, 52. Understanding the risks of sun damage is something I learnt the hard way, having spent most of my youth exposing my skin to UV rays. As a child in the 70s, when there wasn’t much education about it, my mother used to let me play outside on a sunny day with no sun protection. And as a teen in the 80s, on a family holiday in Cyprus, I got severe sunburn all over my body, but other than dealing with the discomfort, back then, nobody worried about the long-term effects sunburn could have. When I started holidaying with friends, we believed getting a little burnt was a way of helping our tans along as, once the soreness faded, we were beautifully bronzed. We experimented with how we could get a tan quickly, and while my friends opted for olive oil or baby oil, I preferred carrot oil. We hit the beach straight after breakfast, flipping over like rotisserie chickens until the sun set. Being bronzed made me feel attractive, and in my 20s, I took my tanning up a notch, renting a
‘BACK THEN, NOBODY WORRIED’
portable sunbed for £50 a month and keeping it in my spare room. It was a rickety wooden machine and in the evenings, I put on my goggles and lay underneath the bright bulbs for half an hour. Working in interior design, I thought having a healthy glow all-yearround made me look more glamorous.
In 1999, age 31, I spent a year in Dubai for work, where once again, I took full advantage of the weather, spending every spare minute in the sun. During one tanning session, I burnt my neck badly and it blistered, but it didn’t deter me.
Back in the UK, it was only when my partner, Keith, then 32, and I had our children, Ellie, in 2000, followed by Tegan in 2003, that I instinctively changed my ways.
By now, wearing sun protection was more commonplace and on holidays, I smothered the kids in thick factor 50, making sure they wore t-shirts in the pool and hats to protect their faces. As a
mum, I didn’t have time to sunbathe anymore as I ran around after them.
As the girls grew up, I was always telling them to be careful in the sun but it was only when Tegan, then 16, found a mole on the top of her leg in February 2019, that I really paid attention. Although the doctors said it was nothing to worry about, I wasn’t convinced and downloaded an app on my phone called Skinvision, which could assess moles and spots, warning you if there was a risk of cancer.
It was a relief that Tegan’s mole was fine but I remembered one on the bottom of my right leg that had been there for a couple of years. I’d mentioned it to the doctor once before and they hadn’t been concerned, but now, I noticed a change. It was red and felt scratchy so I took a photo and when I ran it through the app, it sent a warning message, telling me to see my doctor as soon as possible.
A few days later, I was having an urgent biopsy where doctors removed the entire mole. Results showed I had basal cell carcinoma – skin cancer – and although they’d caught it in time, doctors warned it could have developed into something much more sinister.
Thankfully, I didn’t need treatment, but it left me fearful of the sun. Now, other than a few minutes of exposure for the vitamin D, I spend summers under a parasol, with a hat and factor 50 sunblock all over my body.
These days I even prefer my natural, fairer skin tone and wear make-up with sun protection, as do Ellie and Tegan. In fact, they, like a lot of others their age, shun the sun, preferring to use fake tan instead.
Thinking back to my younger years, I know I only have myself to blame, and I hope that my story makes others think twice before basking in the sunshine.