When Lissa Rowe was 17, she went to her GP about a minor complaint and remembered to ask him, as she was leaving, to have a look at a strange mole on her back that had changed colour and become itchy.
Blonde and fair-skinned, she was not a sun worshipper but had had her share of seaside holidays over the years. The doctor sent her to the hospital straight away and within a few hours, the mole was removed. It was malignant but had been caught before it had spread. Six years on, she is fit and well.
She applies sunblock daily to every inch of skin that is exposed, no matter what the weather. “It if happened to me, it could happen to anyone,” Lissa says. “When you’re a teenager, you don’t really think about the future. But you have to when it comes to the sun.”
