How to deal with friends who continue to burn after skin cancer
I have a friend who has had multiple skin cancers. I continue to see her burning. I know that she applies sun screen but after hours in direct sun it loses effectiveness and she burns. How do you deal with folks like these? PS she is a nurse.
Thst is very distressing. If I was going to be around this friend, I would have to say something. Polite, for sure, but something. I also think I have become hyper vigilant for everyone’s sun safety. I find myself thinking—wonder if they’re wearing sunscreen when I see people out in the sun. I know I can’t save the world. 
...keep sharing your story with her, Scott. Sometimes the ones we think aren't listening are actually hearing us after all. Showing that you are proactive is a great testament to the importance of sun-safety! April, SkinCancer.net, Moderator I appreciate your perspective. My hope is that people are hearing me even if they are not acting on it immediately. Scott skincancer.net moderator
This drives me insane. My neighbor is constantly sunbathing and she’s my fiend who knows what I’ve been through and all about skin cancer. I am starting to think some people think it just won’t happen to them. Yes, there are some folks who probably think it's something that someone else gets and not them. Hope they don't. Scott skincancer.net moderator I think that’s it. They do not see the threat as real to them. And I think there is a lot of misinformation out there. To be honest, before I started having issues, I really thought skin cancer was limited to red heads, etc. Also, when people believe skin cancer is not serious that hurts the situation too.
I have family members that call me the sunscreen queen. My story is I have had squamous cell, my hubby and daughter Melanoma. Funny part about our story my daughter is not his biological daughter. We live in the South and have a pool and vacation at least once a year in the Caribbean. So the rules of my pool are you have to wear sunscreen if you swim here, unless it is after dark. I don't care if you are African American, Latino or other brown skinned family member we can all prevent most skin cancer. I have also extra hats and bottles of sunscreen in a basket on my porch. It scares the hell out of me for my Husband (16 year survivor) and my Daughter 1.5 year survivor. I talk to everyone about skin cancer prevention. My daughters melanoma popped up during pregnancy where she had a previous mole that was biopsied in 2006 when my hubby was diagnosed. We had all 5 of our fair haired and eye kids get checked out. We have multiple redheads in the family. Scary stuff for sure. Thank you for sharing your family's journey with our community. I love that you have pool requirements to protect others. I would hope that they would follow those guidelines in other parts of their lives. Makes me think that those guidelines should be at public pools as well. I know that public pools have other rules that must be followed in order to use their facilities. Scott skincancer.net moderator
