Sun, sea and skin cancer - why over-65s are facing a melanoma epidemic | Mail Online

Regretting being a sun-lover: Tiny De Vries developed skin cancer in her leg

As a young woman in 1969, Tiny De Vries was keen to make the most of the­sudden boom in bargain holidays in the sun.

‘I can still remember the first time I went on a package holiday,’ says the 60-year-old businesswoman and author from Bath.

‘I was 19 and took an all-inclusive trip to southern Spain. Until then, like most­people, I’d only holidayed around the UK and this felt so­incredibly exotic. I used to spend every afternoon on the beach.’

It was to be the first of many similar holidays and gave her a taste for the sunshine life that ultimately led to Tiny and her partner Martyn buying their own property in­Portugal 12 years ago.

‘Ever since that first trip abroad, I­continued taking package holidays to Spain for two or three weeks a year,’ says Tiny.‘I just loved the­convenience, warm weather and, of course, getting a tan.’

Tiny’s memories are idyllic, but fast-forward to today and she is still­reeling from the shock of discovering that, as a result of all that sun-worshipping, she developed malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer on her left leg.

Tiny is one of a generation of people blighted by skin cancer from package holidays.

A recent study by Cancer Research UK shows the mortality rate from skin cancer in the over-65s is three times as high as it was 30 years ago, and that the incidence of malignant melanoma in that age group has risen by five times.

They are more at risk of skin cancer than any other age group.

Experts are blaming the popularity of cheap package holidays to­countries such as Spain, Portugal and Greece, which boomed in the Seventies, when the pensioners of today were in their 20s and 30s.

It is only in the past decade that the public’s attitude to the sun has shifted and we have begun to cover up or use sunscreens. As Tiny recalls:‘Back then, there was no thought of sun­protection. I actually used to slather myself in tanning oil, even though it meant I burned fairly badly. I would go brown eventually. That was what everyone did at the time.’

‘In the Seventies, package­holidays suddenly became ­accessible for the first time,’ says Caroline Cerny, SunSmart­manager at Cancer Research UK.

‘A change in the­culture of tanning including the explosion of cheap holidays and the ­introduction of sunbeds means we’re seeing alarming rates of melanoma for an entire age group.

‘We are seeing a generational shift in rates of skin cancer, with this age group five times more likely to be diagnosed with skin cancer than their parents’­generation would have been.’

 

More...

• Like millions, my father was terrified of needles - it cost him his life

Tiny has undergone two­operations to remove the cancer, leaving a hole the size of a tennis ball in her left leg, and still has to have check-ups every three months to ensure the cancer hasn’t returned.

Though she has been given the all-clear, she is aware that if the c­ancer were to return and spread, there is only a 29 per cent chance she will survive five years.

When Tiny spotted an unusual mark on her leg in­February 2009, the last thing she thought it would be was ­malignant melanoma.‘One morning, I noticed a cluster of veins around the size of a 10p piece inside my left leg just above the ankle bone,’ she says.

‘Over the next few days, it started to bother me, mainly because it was unsightly.

‘It didn’t hurt and nothing­suggested it could be ­cancerous. I’m aware of keeping an eye out for changes in moles, but I thought it was just a blood blister.’

Source