Best wishes!

Would have scared the bejesus out of me. Sounds like you're in the clear. Reckon we'll hear more stories like this as time goes on. I remember playing as a kid in the 60's down the beach for hours without a shirt on. We used coconut oil to tan - it was like basting yourself. What did we know?

As Billie says, "Best wishes"

I have spent most of my life in outdoor activities, particularly sailing and as a builder was in the sun more than most I suppose. I swim every day Summer and Winter so the exposure is always there and I never lose a tan although I don't go out of my way to get in the sun. I read somewhere that miners are particularly susceptible to skin cancer due to the fact that they spend so much time underground and don't build a tolerance. Whether this is true, I cannot say, but I would be interested to know what basic skin colouring Kym Durance has or ethnicity. I hasten to add that I always get a regular skin check-up and so far (in spite of my age)everything looks OK I would hate to give up my outdoor activities as it keeps me fit and healthy in every other way.

All the best!

I have tried to convince a friend of mine who is a farmer AND is prone to moles AND is Nordic blonde AND whose late father (natural causes!), spent many years getting malignant moles cut out of his skin;...to get regular checks.

He HATES going to the doctor. It is only a matter of time I feel,-I can do nothing.

The slip, slop, slap campaign has been a great success in reducing the rates of squamous and basal cell carcinoma.

But the rate of melonoma has increased, there is something else at work here. :(

Kym Durance, you are fortunate in having someone (your wife) to notice changes to moles on your back, in having ready access to an alert and positive medical practitioner, and having very positive prospects from early intervention. So many individuals do not, and half a century or so back their proportion of the population was much higher.
More power to the campaigns against sun cancer, and to publication of articles like this, which encourage individuals to take a healthy and relevant interest into their own details.
I am even more fortunate than Durance. I grew up in what had been dubbed the skin cancer capital of the world: two thousand kilometers further towards the equator, and 800 metres higher in elevation than the author’s locality.
I do not know the reason – genetics, diet, sacramental wine? – that the curse of melanoma scythed so particularly and terribly through those with ancestry from the Emerald Isle. My own genes were from England, Scotland, Norway, yet I have remained unscathed for 76 years. Strangely robust genetics plus fortuitous immune system development may have been on my side. A large proportion of my time over my first two decades were occupied in an environment of fresh air, adequate intake of fresh vegetables and meat, bare feet, shorts-and-shirtless in the sun.
My immune system will sag eventually. The seeds of that have surely been implanted those long years ago. I try to delay the time of that by a good diet, reasonable exercise, and attempted good humour -worked so far.
I am not cheered by perceived inadequacy of competence I observe from a number of General Practitioners. One Skin Specialist I visited a long time ago said of an apparent change in status of a mole – come back in two months, the equipment I need is not here at the moment. Hell, that is a long time for prospective melanoma on the run; I consulted elsewhere immediately, and was relieved of concern.
I don’t want to be around when the above-impending inevitable occurs; perhaps I could take up bungee jumping

Well done Kym.

Keith Kennelly

I don't read this as "a shameless......with death," I view it as a timely reminder of the vulnerability of the human body; a selfless pubic warning against complacency; or the writings of a sensible man. Well done

How goes it, Sneekster? Might I suggest that's what you get for choosing the wrong ancestors.

And bugger calling it self-promotion: NDEs are always interesting, even if they're a tad hyperbolic. I just want to hear from someone who DIDN'T see the tunnel and the blinding white light.

V