Katrina Chan, a 30-year-old Sydney influencer, recently revealed her story of being diagnosed with skin cancer. According to the New York Post, Katrina Chan went for her first skin check after a friend, Stephanie Adams, who also had a precancerous mole on her foot, advised her to do so. She paid $200 for the first full-body check, and doctors discovered a problem area.
”My doctor said let’s just remove some of that skin and we’ll get tested. I got a call two days before I went in to get my stitches removed and then he told me it was melanoma – I was completely shocked,” Ms Chan said.
The dangerous mole was quickly removed after the diagnosis, but Ms Chan had to spend more than $1000 for a GP appointment, mole mapping, cancer removal surgery, and three-month check-ups.
The influencer now advises everyone to have their skin checked and use sunscreen. Despite wearing sunscreen since childhood, she admitted to not taking it seriously enough on her body, only applying it when she was directly exposed to sunshine.
”It might be expensive now to get checked but if there is something wrong, it’s going to be so much more expensive to try and fix it,” she said.
The importance of sunscreen
She also had the mistaken assumption that her olive skin would protect her from the harmful effects of the sun.
”I only started wearing sunscreen every single day on my face when I was about 25. But not so much on my body, I only really wore it on my body when I was directly in the sun,” Ms Chan added.
In 2024, more than 16,000 Australians are predicted to be diagnosed with skin cancer. The Melanoma Institute Australia has urged the government to make screening more inexpensive for high-risk people, such as those with a family history of the disease or fair skin.
Excessive exposure to the sun’s damaging UV radiation is the leading cause of skin cancer. The sun’s rays emit UV rays that are detrimental to the body and cause changes in cell structure, causing aberrant cell replication. A change in the color of a specific area of the skin is the first and most prevalent symptom of skin cancer.
As a result, sunscreens should not be considered cosmetic, but rather necessary for skin protection.