Why travellers need to be more sun smart

Everybody loves the sunshine, plenty of people love a golden tan, but nobody loves what the sun does to your skin later in life.

Instagram is full of guys and girls exploring tropical destinations with year round tans. I see pictures of bronzed girls and want to spray them people with sunscreen and tie them down under an umbrella. You’ll see pictures on my Instagram account of me prancing around in the sun, but the rest of the time you’ll find me in the shade with a hat and long sleeve top on. I also use an umbrella to shade myself in cities. I must have been a vampire in my previous life. Keep reading to see why I’m so paranoid about the sun.

A bit of background about my relationship with the sun

I’m lucky that I have a mum that was militant of me wearing sunscreen as a kid. I also have skin that tans super easy, I just tan while I sit in the shade with sunscreen on, so I have to try hard to protect my skin. My overriding memory of family holidays is my mum forcing a hat and sunscreen on me and her saying “keep your face out of the sun, or you’ll look like a handbag when you’re older”. My mum also bought me anti ageing cream for my 10th birthday. Thanks mum.

I have moisturised twice daily and kept my face out of the sun since before I was a teenager. Annoyingly, I let things slip a bit when I backpacked in Australia in 2005. I had a daily moisturiser with spf 50, wore a hat and stuck to the shade whenever possible, but this probably wasn’t enough, because I was very tanned after a year of traveling.

A few years after returning home I was working in a surgical department at a hospital as a dental nurse. I wasn’t dealing with teeth so much, I was dealing with skin cancer from the neck upwards. It was horrific.

Now for the science bit

There are two common forms of skin cancer, a slow growing basal cell carcinoma and a fast growing squamous cell carcinoma. The basal cell grows fairly slowly and is flat and easier to remove under the knife. The squamous cell grows quickly with octopus like tentacles that are invisible to the naked eye. Patients frequently need to have more skin removed once biopsy results shows that some of the ‘cancer tentacles’ were left behind. This skin obviously never grows back.

The worst part of treating cancer patients during my time at the hospital was witnessing patients that had fast growing lesion on a prominent part of there face, say their lip or nose. This was not a rare occurrence. Patients frequently had their features removed, due to fast growing lesions on their face. After a few failed conservative attempts of trying to rid the skin of cancer and those nasty cancer octopus tentacles, patients had to have larger chunks of their face cut off to stop the cancer spreading any further.

Boys and girls if you get skin cancer on your nose, you may need to have your nose removed. It’s horrible. It’s not fun. Stay out of the sun.

One of the departments in the ward made prosthestetic noses, lips and cheeks for patients who had lost part of their face due to skin cancer. Faces never look the same again.

I have religiously stayed out of the sun since working at the hospital as my stint there gave me a huge fright. It’s like the universe provided me with a job that scared me enough to protect my skin right before I moved to Asia.

Fast forward to now

I try not to lecture people on the importance of protecting yourself from the sun. Nobody enjoys my stories of skin cancer, they seem to think I’m making it up, because I guess having your nose surgically removed isn’t that believable.

Shortly after finishing working at the hospital I moved to Hong Kong, which has far stronger sun than Europe. I also travel for 3 months of the year. I spend my life trying to avoid UV rays. I love beautiful beaches, I love turquoise water, but hate what the sun does to skin.

During my first year in Hong Kong I learned the hard way that the sun is much stronger than Europe and I got sunburned on my face. It was only the second time I had ever burned my face, because I have tried all my life to keep it out the sun. A few months later dark blotches appeared on my skin. It turned out they were sunspots caused by sun damage. It’s like blotchy freckles. I’ve spent 6+ years trying every product under the sun (no pun intended) to shrink the damn things.

When I travel now, I wear a sunscreen with an spf 50, a foundation with an spf 50 and mineral makeup which acts as a sunblock with an spf 30. My sunspots still return in one day of being in the sun with a hat on. It’s so frustrating, but thankfully they are all shrinking and improving, not getting worse. I put it down to my militant sunscreen application and using a Retin-A cream, when I’m back at home and away from sunny weather.

The best thing about my love of shade and sunscreen is that I don’t have that many wrinkles after 15 years of traveling. I’ve kept my face out the sun pretty well.

The benefits of protecting yourself from the sun far outweighs the benefits of a tan. Tans fade, age spots are annoying little bastards to get rid of and skin cancer is even worse.

Wear sunscreen, put on a wide brimmed hat, don’t sit in direct sun and wear a long sleeved skivvy to swim in. Maxi skirts and loose long sleeves are also perfect to keep your arms and legs shaded. Oh and moisturise like your life depends on it. Your older self will thank you.