Doctor's diary: Skin cancer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/health/8159386.stm

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By Dr Tom Coffey

There are conflicting messages about the sun

Dr Tom Coffey is seeing many more cases of deadly skin cancer. He says a simple mole check can save your life.

I've been amazed over the last few years at a big increase in patients with skin cancer. Ten years ago I saw maybe one case a year at the most; now I'm seeing five or six cases every year.

And also the people getting it are changing - it used to be old people who'd spent years in the sun - now I'm seeing people in their twenties and thirties getting skin cancer.

The advice now that I give my patients is to make sure you're sun aware, so if you're in the sun wear sun screen, at least factor 30, put a hat on and wear a T-shirt - simple measures like that.

And I'd always say avoid sun ray lamps - fake tan is cheap and it's healthy, no-one dies from taking too much fake tan.

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