Madison beauty - Beauty blog: Mrs Darling puts solariums in the fryer

When the news came through about the NSW government banning solariums I was ecstatic. Finally sense has prevailed. The only down side: the ban is not in place until 2014. Why the wait, when the Cancer Council states that anyone who first used a tanning bed before they turned 35 has double the risk of developing melanoma?

Now anyone who knows me, even faintly, will know I am a nazi about the dangers of UV. This stems from bitter personal experience. When I was growing up, with the palest skin on the North Shore, we got burnt to a crisp on regular occasions. How’s this stat, if you get burnt 5 times before you turn 15 your skin cancer risk goes up astronomically. How about if it’s 5 times a summer!!!. No one knew. I remember sitting out on my friend’s balcony at Bilgola beach peeling sheets of skin off my shoulders. Gross but also strangely satisfying, that is until I had to have a basil cell carcinoma cut out of my right shoulder.

It started out life looking like a little red pimple that just would not go away. I don’t even know how I found it. I ended up in a plastic surgeon’s rooms to have it excised. He left the room and I foolishly went over to look at “it”. There was this large cone of flesh, honestly I nearly passed out. They have to take a big section so that the “tentacles “of the cancer can’t spread. I can feel the bile rising in my throat even now. Oh and the other great thing. Once you have had one you are prone to others. Joy. So far so good, but I see Dr Chris Kearney, my long suffering derm every 6 months, who keeps a weather eye on my skin.

Needless to say, when my sons were young and pliable they were covered head to toe in rashies. Now, atleast, they do slather on the SPF30+, most of the time.

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