SURVIVE YOUR BOATING IN THE SUN
Long before Australia’s Slip, Slop, Slap campaign, the post-WWII generations of Baby Boomer and Gen X kids grew up with new freedoms and technologies that made for an idyllic lifestyle of boating, surfing, and fishing.
By the 1980s boating had become easy and affordable for millions of Aussies, with trailerboats and reliable outboard motors giving access to our abundant coastal and inland waterways. Sadly, we did not know then what we know now — namely that millions from these generations have now died specifically due to their carefree ‘Bronzed Aussie’ lifestyle. For those of us still around, many surgeries and life-threatening consequences lie in the years ahead.
To many of us, tanned skin is considered attractive and a sign of good health and fitness, but there is no such thing as a healthy tan or a tan that protects you from skin cancer. Even people with naturally black or dark brown skin, such as Indigenous Australians, contract and die from skin cancers.
Melanoma rates in the under 40s age group — those who grew up with the Slip, Slop, Slap campaign — are now reducing, but rates in the 60+ age group are still on the rise.
You don’t, however, need to be a victim. As I will explain, there are
