Have someone check your back regularly for any unusual spots or moles. The cancer can quickly spread to the lymphatic system and cause secondary tumors anywhere in your body. Cancer does not go away on its own and pretending everything is alright is a quick way to an early grave. You owe it to your partner, children and friends who all love you to look after yourself.

Men are worse than women at getting treatment, as with so many medical conditions. Men are more cowardly about going to a doctor than most women, perhaps because women are used to being probed and stared at through pregnancy. The result is that men have a worse survival rate than women for skin cancer, simply because they delay treatment for longer.

Exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun is strongly linked with an increased risk of developing skin cancer. The Australians have a slogan, slip, slap, slop. Slip on a shirt, slap on a hat, slop on the sunscreen. This is one of the best ways of reducing your risk of developing skin cancer.

Certain skin types are very short of the protective chemical, melanin. Red heads usually have very fair skin with freckles and need to be particularly sensible about exposure to the sun in summer.

There are certain parts of our skin that we rarely think to protect with sunscreen including earlobes, lips and hands among them. Special care needs to be taken with these areas. If you are going topless for the first time, apply lots of cream to your breasts and a sun block to your nipples. Sunburned nipples are very painful.

Skin cancer is often treated by cutting away the affected area, this may leave a scar, but usually removes the cancerous tissue completely, if caught in the early stages.