Protecting Your Skin Is Worth the Effort

Posted on by DCPC

Photo of Mallory
By Mallory Lubbock

Today, at only 26 years old, I got my first skin cancer spot removed. Soon, I’ll go back to the doctor to have my sutures taken out and my wound checked. Later, I have an appointment to get my whole body checked for more spots that may be skin cancer.

I’ll have to go to the doctor regularly for skin exams for the rest of my life, and will probably have to go through the painful experience of having more skin cancers removed in the future.

I wish I could tell 16-year-old me to never start tanning. As a teenager, I tanned almost every day for four years. I didn’t realize at the time how much damage I was doing to my skin.

As a mother, I will try very hard to make sure my children never tan, in a tanning bed or in the sun. Hopefully, seeing what their mama went through will be enough. I want them to know that the skin they were born with is perfect, just the way it is.

Photo of Mallory and her two children.
Mallory and her two children.

I want to tell everyone—protect your skin when you’re outside in the sun! Tanning is so not worth the scars and pain of having skin cancer.

I remember seeing skin cancer posts on Facebook and thinking, “Oh, that will never happen to me.” But it turns out, skin cancer is the most common type of cancer that people get in the United States, and most skin cancers are caused by exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun or tanning beds.

“I wish I could tell 16-year-old me to never start tanning. I will try very hard to make sure my children never tan.”

Now, I’m the mom at the beach with an umbrella, a cover-up on, and sunscreen HEAVILY applied, and so are my kids. It takes a little extra planning before we go out, but I’ll do anything I can to avoid having to go through this again and to protect my kids from having to experience the same pain that I’ve had. It’s worth the effort!

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5 comments on “Protecting Your Skin Is Worth the Effort”

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    Just had basal cell removed from my nose last year. Never really tried to tan because i’m fair skinned. Had a red dot on my nose for about 40 years. It turned into skin cancer. Now I have to wear sunscreen with zinc oxide just to walk outside.

    I have had melanoma twice removed from my back! And we all know that sometimes that can be a death sentence! When I was a teenager I would lay out in the sun for hrs. I also went to the beach a lot. I never wore sun screen! My Dad tried to tell me about the damage I was doing to my skin, but I didn’t listen. Just like now my kids do not listen! So far, I have been blessed both times mine was very early stage cancer. But I will always have to get checked regularly. I just wish people could understand what thry’re Doing to their self!?

    as a farmers daughter and wife, we wore bikini tops baling hay and swimming, detasseling etc. always had a nice tan by the time school started back up. As an adult, going to cosmetology college, always tanned, went to beach got fried, layed out under sprinkler to tan faster. I have never had any skin cancer. At 54, I still do some sun bathing still no skin cancer, my opinion, its in the genes.

    You’ve been lucky so far, and hopefully, you will have many years left. The research in the Journal of Clinical Oncology states that melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is caused 90% of the time by too much sun exposure. Only 10% is genetic. I hope your luck holds out.

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Page last reviewed: Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Page last updated: Tuesday, February 9, 2021