Jen’s teenage summers were all about ‘being brown’. Decades later, she fears nothing has changed

Jen Benfield’s teenage summers were “probably not too dissimilar” to those of many others of her generation.

“It was all about being brown because we correlated being brown with how thin we looked,” the 52-year-old from Mosman recalls, with an exasperated laugh.

“So stupid.”

Jen Benfield was diagnosed with melanoma after what she described as being “so stupid” about sun exposure when she was younger.Credit: James Brickwood

An Australian is diagnosed with melanoma every 30 minutes, making it the third most common cancer after prostate and breast.

For Benfield, the diagnosis happened more than two decades after she was a teenager lying out in the sun to tan. A sunburn on holiday seemed to have scabbed a mole on her shoulder. Next, she noticed tiny spots of blood on her bedsheets.

Benfield thought her olive complexion meant she was not at any risk of skin cancer. But 48 hours after having a large spot cut out at a skin clinic, she learnt her melanoma was aggressive.

Once a melanoma reaches 1 millimetre deep, it has access to the blood and body’s lymphatic system. Four years later, during a routine check, a spot was found on Benfield’s lung. Three months later, it had grown, and another spot was visible. They later found spots on her kidneys.

“I fast become a stage 4 metastatic cancer patient.”

She is emotional recalling that time, and having to explain what was happening – the (abandoned) clinical trials, and gruelling surgeries to remove sections of her lung, kidney, and, when more spots were found a year later, lung again – to her two children, who were both in primary school.

“They were just terrified, and I was very terrified myself,” she says.

“The biggest pain that I had was I couldn’t comfort them. I was hooked up to everything. I couldn’t hug them. I couldn’t tuck them into bed, and I couldn’t tell them everything would be OK because we just didn’t know at that stage.”

Jen Benfield with her daughter Chloe, 16.Credit: James Brickwood

While she has been clear for 20 months, Benfield must have PET, CT and MRIs every three months for the rest of her life. She will never be in remission.

Her daughter, Chloe, is 16, and Benfield is worried by the attitudes towards tanning held by the next generation.

“A friend of mine reached out to me the other day and said her daughter was heading to the beach because the UV was at 12, and that was perfect tanning weather,” she says. “It’s still the same as when we were teens.”

Benfield is not alone. Skin cancer experts have raised the alarm about social media glorification of tan lines eroding decades of warning about melanoma risk to a generation too young to remember the “Slip, Slop, Slap” campaign.

Joint medical director of Melanoma Institute Australia and 2024 Australian of the Year Professor Georgina Long – whose 2022 National Press Club address on the subject led TikTok to place warnings on tanning content – remains concerned about the promotion of tanning on social media.

“The glamorisation of tanning is rife – even fake tan glamorises tanning – so young people lie out in the sun and subject themselves to incredible radiation,” she says.

“The tan is an SOS, it’s not beauty.”

This summer, many skin cancer experts are remembering the work of the late Dr Saxon Smith, a Sydney dermatologist and former NSW president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), whose groundbreaking 2015 publication on sunscreen education led to important changes in how medical students, doctors and the public were taught about primary prevention of skin cancer.

“Saxon wanted to put himself out of business,” Long says.

Smith died from sarcoma in February, aged 47, leaving behind his wife, Camille, and 13-year-old son, Elliot.

His research focused on attitudes towards sunscreen and sun safety, showing that Australians lagged several European countries in sunscreen use and many people had no idea sunscreen had an expiry date, needed to be stored under 25 degrees to remain effective or that about two tablespoons were required to cover the whole body.

Camille says her late husband always said, with its harsh climate, “we were never designed to live in Australia”.

“But he definitely practised what he preached – rain, hail or shine,” she says of his diligent sunscreen use.

Late Sydney dermatologist Dr Saxon Smith with his wife, Camille, and son, Elliot.Credit:

This summer, the AMA is launching a “Sun Checks for Saxon” campaign, encouraging the public to use sunscreen properly this summer.

For AMA NSW president Dr Kathryn Austin, Smith was both a highly regarded doctor and researcher and a “wonderful beacon of light”.

“As we embark on a long, hot summer, please protect yourself from the sun at all times and use sunscreen properly,” she says.

“Melanoma is deadly for many of those diagnosed, and devastating for those left behind. Let’s do this for Saxon and all those we love.”

Sunscreen tips for best use

• Store sunscreen below 25 degrees
• Always check expiry dates and discard if the product is out of date
• Use two tablespoons to cover your body

AMA NSW

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