DESPITE my preaching on the dangers of sunbathing over the years, I have a confession to make. I, like many 20-somethings, had a sordid affair with The Tan.
Leave me in the baking sun with a magazine and a bottle of SPF 4 and I'd be one happy girl.
For years, if the Capital was blessed with weekend sunshine, I'd be in the garden soaking it up. On holiday, I'd hard-core it all day, ignoring my partner
lamenting his boredom; or indulge in my favourite pastime with the girls. Eventually I'd turn an enviable bronze shade. Job done.
Now, I am told, I have risked skin cancer by "binge tanning" – despite weaning myself off my addiction four years ago. In a survey to mark the start of Sun Awareness Week, Cancer Research UK found that a third of young adults spend more than five hours a day in the sun on holiday. And one in three would be happy to increase that if they did not feel tanned enough towards the end of their break.
A tan is the indicator of a good holiday to many young adults, apparently. A third would use sunscreen with a low protection factor, 19 per cent go without sunscreen and 15 per cent would use products such as baby oil to speed up tanning. Stupid? With 1600 deaths in the UK every year because of skin cancer, yes. Shocking? Not really.
My love affair started during exam leave for my Standard Grades when I was 15. It was a scorcher of a summer and I baked in the sun daily for at least six hours – then had two weeks on Majorca.
The next year, during Highers, all the girls would revise on the sun lounger, all day, every day, for three blissful weeks. Then we celebrated with two weeks on Majorca where we tanned and tanned. And tanned.
University allowed for cheap holidays or lazy days in the Meadows. And free time to hit the local sun-bed shop – I'd think nothing of a nine-minute session, twice a week.
I liked how I looked, I liked how it made me feel and I didn't care about the very real threat of skin cancer. That, I naively reasoned, happened to others.
It wasn't until a session with a diagnostic system that captures the true damage life does to your skin, that I realised just what I was doing. The light box – commonplace now, but new in 2003 – used an ultraviolet camera which detected thin skin, thick skin, pigmentation and general UV damage. My skin looked great but I'd aged far beyond my years.
From that day, I've used sunscreen all year – SPF15 in autumn and winter and SPF30 in spring and summer. I don't sunbathe and I can perfect a mean self-tan.
But it's too late. The same skin diagnosis two years on revealed more pigmentation, fine lines and the dreaded wrinkles.
I had another skin consultation at the new SK:N clinic on Hanover Street last month which revealed my sun worship has caused irreversible damage. Sun spots, uneven skin tone, skin laxity and an increase in moles were just some of the side-effects.
In our 20s, skin ages and enzymes break down collagen and elastine fibres, speeding up ageing. Sun, smoking and alcohol exacerbate it. By the time we hit 30, skin is thinner and less elastic, with permanent lines and wrinkles appearing.
By 40, it's clear who's been a sun binger. The damage is long-term and hides until you're older. There's absolutely nothing you can do.
Hindsight is great – if only I'd realised. Hopefully, today's teens will do so.
The full article contains 623 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
