Skin Cancer

Posted on June 27, 2016

We urge you - have your skin regularly checked for melanoma skin cancer & practice sun safety. The statistics in Australia are frightening!

We can just get it burned off… We’ll be right.

Skin cancer is one of those cancers we sometimes tend to think “well we can just get it burned off. We’ll be right.” It’s really only the last generation that we really have taken sun protection seriously. We cover our kids with creams, no hats no policy in schools and so forth. A child of the seventies and eighties it was a different story. We covered ourselves with reef oil and I remembered always being in a competition with my girlfriends who could get the darkest tan. The funny thing is, my sister Rachel, never sun baked and was diagnosed with a melanoma skin cancer at age 30. She grew up in the northern rivers area which boasts the highest rate of melanoma skin cancer in Australia.

I have had basal cell carcinoma and a variety of skin cancers. As I write this I await for my pathology on a recent skin cancer removed from my face. It might be my age however more and more I hear of people dying of melanoma skin cancer around me. Not old people, young vibrant people. Young mothers that leave small children, fathers gone in a matter of weeks. I believe there is an epidemic about to surface. So for goodness sakes have your skin checked by a skin specialist (not a GP). Because my sisters GP told her that her melanoma skin cancer was nothing to worry about. Her gut feeling saved her life. I am not saying GPs don’t know just saying with all the free skin cancer clinic around and if you can get to one they are your best bet!

That is how Eco Tan was born!

We started having spray tans after Rachael’s diagnosis, but I was worried about what we were putting into her scar. I researched the ingredients and was shocked at what I found. So I started making batches from my little kitchen using only organic and natural ingredients. Many sticky batches later I was successful.

Here are some melanoma skin cancer facts below

  • Skin cancers account for around 80% of all newly diagnosed cancers.
  • 95% and 99% of skin cancers are caused by exposure to the sun.
  • GPs have over 1,000,000 patient consultations per year for skin cancer.
  • In Australia the incidence of skin cancer is one of the highest in the world, and two to three times the rates in Canada, the US and the UK.

So don’t it put off, have your skin checked regularly and stay safe in the sun. 

Blessings, 

Sonya x

P.S. we even created a sun safety guide to make it even easier for you to be safe in the sun!