Cancer risk too many dads are taking: Australian blokes urged to ‘Save your Skin’ this summer

A new $10m ad campaign is being launched to help Aussie blokes protect themselves. See the video and have your say.

Exclusive: Aussie blokes will be the focus of a new $10 million skin cancer advertising campaign as new research shows half of them don’t use sun protection.

The ads, to be launched by Health Minister Mark Butler on Sunday, are an extension of the old, catchy “Slip, Slip Slap” campaign.

They feature a dad explaining to his son how to protect items in the home from the sun while failing to shield his own body from UV.

His son tells him he needs to protect himself.

To ‘Save your Skin’ the ads urge people to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat, seek shade and slide on wraparound sunglasses.

The incidence of melanoma has doubled in the last 40 years and it is expected to overtake bowel cancer to become our third most common cancer this year.

Aussies will be urged to Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide to protect themselves from skin cancer in a new $10 million advertising campaign launched by Health Minister Mark Butler.

More than 17,756 Australians will be diagnosed with melanoma this year as surging case numbers push it from being our fourth to our third most common cancer.

Almost twice as many men as women will die from melanoma this year alone.

A new Cancer Council survey found less than a third (29 per cent) of men regularly use sunscreen and are 50 per cent more likely to develop melanoma than women.

Less than half (49 per cent) of men reported often or always seeking shade to protect themselves from the sun during peak UVR hours during summer.

And more than half of respondents (55 per cent) got sunburnt at least once during the summer, with the most common activity being during a walk, jog or run (15 per cent).

Not enough dads are using sun protection.

Cancer Council Australia’s Director of Cancer Control Policy Megan Varlow said the research “reinforces that Australians, particularly men, aren’t protecting themselves on a daily basis”.

“This tells us that more needs to be done to remind people of the easy steps they can take to reduce their risk of skin cancer every day,” Ms Varlow said.

Australians will see the new ads throughout this summer – on TV, radio and online – to help remind them how to stay safe from our ‘national cancer’.

Two high-profile former cricketers will also promote the message on television broadcasts during games.

“Sadly, skin cancer claims the lives of more than 2000 Australians every year. Yet, there are easy steps we can take to protect ourselves from the sun and reduce our risk of skin cancer,” Health Minister Mark Butler said.

John Clements from Normanville SA, age 65, has had multiple skin cancers removed. PortraPicture: Keryn Stevens

Retired schoolteacher John Clements is literally scarred by the sun after having multiple skins cancers removed.

Growing up in the 1960s he remembers spending every summer at the family’s beach shack, wearing only swimmers and a coating of baby oil.

“I grew up in a time where no one knew better. We’d run around on the beach with just our bathers on and would try to get a tan. My life, and that of my two brothers, would have been much better had we covered our skin up,” he said.

“If a kid did that now, it’d be child abuse.”

Mr Clements has had a dozen squamous cell carcinomas cut out from his bicep, the back of his calves and his back. He has also had basal cell carcinomas taken off his face and hands.

“I was a bit blasé about my health back in the day, like a lot of blokes. Now, if I’m out in the sun at all, I make sure to protect myself,” he said.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with cancer and needs support, please know that help is available.

You can contact Cancer Council’s free and confidential support line on 13 11 20 – for practical, emotional and financial support.