Choose You Blog
“You know ‘we’ get skin cancer too.”
The above quote was one of the latest ones shared by my grandmother. I was one of my first visits to see her after several weekends of doing any and everything in the sun. She hugged me and said, “You’re getting awfully brown out there.” She was definitely right…You see, I am a summertime sun junkie.
Bringing us to the next part of the conversation. My Granny turned to me and said, “I know you better be wearing sunscreen. I always wear it because I do not want any cancer. You know ‘we’ get skin cancer too.” My eyes shifted and I stammered a bit because I knew what she was saying and agreed but wasn’t acting like it. Unless I plan to be outside for more than 5 hours and/or it’s a 90+ degree day, I don’t use sunscreen.
While statistics show that melanoma is 10 times more common in whites than in African Americans, that doesn’t mean that I should behave like I’m exempt from this condition. So, I promised my Granny that I would start breaking out the sunscreen and giving my body a break now and then from the sun exposure. To help me with this process, I’ve purchased lotions and face moisturizers that contain sunscreen so that I don’t have an added step, especially on a daily basis.
Tomorrow night is my Granny’s birthday dinner and I’m super sure that she will be asking me about the sunscreen and sun issue. Luckily, I will be able to tell her that I’m getting smarter about protecting my skin and my health. And, I think that is one of the best birthday gifts that I could ever give her.
5 Responses to ““Brown Girls Get Skin Cancer Too””
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Thank you so much for posting this! I tell my son this all the time because he seems to think that he has nothing to worry about. But he’s light skinned and will burn really badly if at the beach all day. Bottom line – if you burn you can damage your skin and pretty much everyone will burn with too much exposure!
Thank you so much for posting this! My son seems to think he has nothing to worry about. But he’s light skinned and if he’s at the beach all day will burn really badly. Bottom line – if you burn you are damaging your skin and if you are exposed long enough everyone will burn!
I’m so glad to see this blog. I volunteer with the Skin Cancer Awareness Network Foundation and was just having this exact same conversation with a young lady at an event this past weekend. I’m an African American woman with brown skin and I’ve never had a sunburn, so thinking about skin cancer almost feels counter-intuitive. But in fact, “we” definitely get it and it tends to show up as discoloration under our nails and spots on our feet or palms. Just from lack of real awareness as a base, our long-term survival rate from melanoma is lower. So kudos to you for raising this issue here and reminding us that we shouldn’t consider ourselves exempt from protecting our skin from the sun!
Agree! We tend to forget this can affect us too. Scary statistic about long-term survival rates being lower.