Skin cancer rates rocket by 45% in 10 years

18 July 2019, 13:41 | Updated: 18 July 2019, 13:45

A sharp rise in the number of young people being diagnosed with skin cancer has led to fresh warnings over the dangers of spending too much time in the sun.

A new study by Cancer Research UK has found cases of melanoma skin cancer have risen by 45 per cent in the last decade.

 

As part of the Own Your Tone campaign, the charity is now encouraging you to embrace your natural skin tone and protect your skin fom too much sun. 

 

Rebecca Healey works for Sunderland skin cancer charity MelanomaMe and said people who use sunbeds are not always aware of the risks.

 

"Tanning is seen as the desireable thing - if you don't have a tan, you're not seen as being healthy," she said.

 

"I think that it is quite worrying the fact that there is a lot of young people going out and using sunbeds and they don't realise what doses of UV they're actually exposing themselves to."

 

Melanoma is the second most common type of skin cancer in people aged 25 to 49 but the charity say almost 90 per cent of cases could be prevented if people took better care of their skin in the sun - both at home and abroad.

Trending on Heart