West Norwood Therapies
  • Home
  • Therapies
    • Gift Vouchers >
      • Gift vouchers
    • Massage
    • Acupuncture
    • Reflexology
    • Reiki
    • Tibetan bowl sound healing
    • Videos
    • Links to classes
  • Practitioners
    • Erika Zettervall
    • Laura Devonshire
    • Lauren O'Sullivan
    • Mihaly Rosta
    • Philippa Summers
    • Tessa Glover
    • (Jennie Duck)
    • Schedule
    • Contact details
  • Contact and Booking
    • Find Us
    • Covid 19
    • About
    • Ts & Cs
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog

Blog                                  

Skin Cancer Awareness Month

5/17/2022

0 Comments

 
This month is Skin Cancer Awareness Month and sports massage therapist Lauren O'Sullivan shares some helpful guidelines in what to look for and how to protect yourself as well as her personal experience of a skin cancer scare.
Picture
May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month! Did you know that skin cancer is one of the most preventable cancers if signs are caught early? This blog post is here to help you know what to look out for. As a soft tissue therapist I see a lot of skin, and so I am fairly attuned to noticing subtle changes, but how well do you know your own skin?
 
This month find some time to give yourself a skin check from head to toe - you will need to use a mirror. Don’t forget to look at your face and scalp. You can use a hairdryer to part your hair when looking at your scalp, or get someone to help you. You are looking for anything new, changing or unusual. So what is unusual?
  • A growth that increases in size and appears pearly, transparent, tan, brown, black or multicoloured.
  • A mole, birthmark or brown spot that increases in size, thickness, changes colour or texture, or is bigger than a pencil eraser.
  • A sore or spot that continues to itch, hurt, crust, scab or bleed.
  • An open sore that does not heal within three weeks.  
Picture
The ABCDE’s of melanoma:
A is for asymmetry - it looks different to a round or oval mole.
B is for border - melanoma borders tend to be uneven and may have a scalloped edge.
C is for colour - multiple colours are a warning sign.
D is for diameter or dark - 6mm or larger. Is it darker than your other moles?
E is for evolving - CHANGE in size, shape, colour or elevation of a spot on your skin.
Document your findings somewhere so that you can refer back to them next time you do a check. This is useful when trying to work out if anything has CHANGED. Skincancer.org recommends that you do a skin check once a month, but every 3 months is probably a little more realistic and works just fine.
 
The other important prevention method is protecting your skin from sun damage. The more you burn your skin from sun exposure, the greater your risk of developing melanoma. Five or more sunburns more than doubles your risk of developing melanoma. Even if you are tan or have dark skin, your skin can still be damaged by the sun especially when there is a high UV index - when and where the sun is strongest. Think about some simple ways to stay safe in the sun:
  • Cover up with clothing. More and more clothing labels include a an Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF), the higher the factor the more blockage of UV radiation.
  • Stay in the shade, especially between 10am and 4pm. Be aware that shade isn’t a perfect shield and UV rays can still pass through leaves and branches and reflect off water, glass and concrete
Picture
  • Apply suncream. Look out for high SPF, broad spectrum (blocks UVA and UVB rays), and water resistant. For extended outdoor activity you should ideally be using SPF 30 or higher and reapply every 2 hours or after swimming or sweating.

Picture
I have had a personal experience with an abnormal mole on my upper arm. It was always dual tone in its colour, meaning that one half was darker than the other. The key thing is noticing any change, and so when the dark section started to get a little bigger and the edges became a little irregular I knew it was time to get it checked out (notice some ABCDE’s from above?). Unfortunately this was during the start of the pandemic and so it took a while for my doctor’s referral to go through in the hospital and I waited 5 months before being seen. I would not recommend this! If you or your therapist have noticed any of the changes mentioned above, be stubborn with your doctor and push for a quick referral. My appointment in the dermatology department was very thorough, they checked over my whole body for moles and immediately sent me through to get the one on my upper arm removed. Once removed, they sent the mole off for testing and fortunately it was not cancerous.
If you do notice something slightly abnormal in your skin make an appointment with your Doctor. If you have a partner you can ask them if they notice a difference from how it might have looked before (if you don’t have a reliable skin check history) or if you regularly see a massage therapist and feel comfortable asking them, see if they have noticed a change. You may be able to provide a bit more information to your Doctor this way, but the most important thing is to get it checked. Better safe than sorry. Early detection starts with you.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Blogs from the WNT team. For our blogs from before June 2020 please see individual profile pages - it's a good way to get to know practitioners too.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    October 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020

    Categories

    All
    Acupuncture
    Advice
    Environment
    Erika Zettervall
    Exercise
    Fertility
    Guest Post
    Holistic Health
    Jennie Duck
    Laura Devonshire
    Lauren O'Sullivan
    Local
    Massage
    Mental Health
    Mihaly Rosta
    Nutrition
    Outdoors
    Philippa Summers
    Pregnancy Birth And Beyond
    Recipes
    Reflexology
    Reiki
    Seasonal
    Self Care
    Sleep
    Small Business
    Sound Healing
    Sports Massage
    Stress
    Tessa Glover
    Wellbeing
    Yoga

    RSS Feed

Visit us - by appointment only please - in the office block in the Access Self Storage premises at 443 Norwood Road, London, SE27 9DQ

info@westnorwoodtherapies.com
Phone - please contact practitioners directly, or if not in a rush you can leave a message for us to call you back at 07931876931.
Picture
  • Home
  • Therapies
    • Gift Vouchers >
      • Gift vouchers
    • Massage
    • Acupuncture
    • Reflexology
    • Reiki
    • Tibetan bowl sound healing
    • Videos
    • Links to classes
  • Practitioners
    • Erika Zettervall
    • Laura Devonshire
    • Lauren O'Sullivan
    • Mihaly Rosta
    • Philippa Summers
    • Tessa Glover
    • (Jennie Duck)
    • Schedule
    • Contact details
  • Contact and Booking
    • Find Us
    • Covid 19
    • About
    • Ts & Cs
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog