I check one of those “days of the month” calendars to see if there’s anything fun I can use for the Twitter account I maintain at work (because I’m trying to not be all corporate-y all the time, even though I probably will get in trouble someday for the funny memes I post since I am positive the brand team has no sense of humor). Anyway, I saw that today is National Melanoma Day. In fact, the entire month of May is National Melanoma Month.
And while rationally most of us know that you should wear and consistently reapply sunscreen, don’t use a tanning bed (please for the love of god don’t use a tanning bed), and protect your skin as best you can – well, we all slip up, right?
But then I read stories like this one – where a woman younger than myself has already had 86 skin cancers removed – and I’m rushing to my bathroom to apply sunscreen right this second. I will give the woman in the story credit. I can’t even imagine how upsetting it would be to go to the doctor that often to have had 86 excisions, 86 times someone cut into your skin to remove cancer that left untreated will kill you, 86 times get the diagnosis…
Look, I remember back in the day when every summer my friends and I thought that the hallmark of a great summer was the tan we acquired. We didn’t know as much back then about melanoma and the incredibly scary ways that it can scar you, even kill you. We know better now so why do we still think that someone looks great, looks healthy even, when they’re tan? We wouldn’t tell someone smoking, wow your lungs look great all black, keep doing what you’re doing because you look so damn healthy… Let’s all make a pact that this is the summer that we decide that a tan isn’t what we want this summer. Let’s start thinking like dermatologists and realize that no tan is healthy, that it’s a very visible sign of skin damage occurring. Let’s opt for protecting our skin instead.