Hi everyone!

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So this is my first time on the forum. Following advice from Macmillan support line, I decided to sign up and see if I can get some support and much needed advice.

Having a particularly hard day today. The weather in Northern Ireland has been over 15 degrees and sun is beating out of the sky. I have my spf 50 on, wearing a jumper and jeans and hiding indoors. Feeling particularly guilty as I haven’t walked my dog yet, just can’t bear to go outside even with the protection.

Everything seems to be a trigger. People talking about the weather, summer clothes, coffee dates in the sun… it seems to be endless. Even my counselling session yesterday was guided meditation on “a lovely sunny day”. Feeling consumed by the diagnosis and feeling frustrated that even those nearest and dearest are still coming out with stupid comments like “your garden would be great to sunbathe in”. Like seriously?!
Just cos the beast got cut out, it’s all ok, back to normality? Thankful that the only treatment needed was surgical but can’t help think that this is my new life now. :-(

Saltmarsh over 2 years ago

Hullo there,tea_monster! I empathise wholly with you! I grew up in N. Ireland. We true natives have fair/very fair skin - we are northerners! I am a temperate plant, who detests extreme temperatures either way, and can function better in rain than a heatwave. The latter makes me feel quite ill. I have what the medics call "co-morbidities", but am in touch with Macmillan through a melanoma. On my scalp, yikes! Fairly desperate to find which hats work post-surgery. No success yet.

Hope you are coping. They seem 'awful' nice on here, I am impressed (despite no-one popping up to say "I had that and this worked for me"...)!

Lynskey over 2 years ago in reply to Saltmarsh

Hi tea_monster and Saltmarsh.

I'm very much an outdoor person and my passions are cycling and gardening. I, like you both, am somewhat paranoid about being outdoors but what would life be like without the enjoyment of my favourite pastimes. So the solution, for me, is about protection and as well as SPF 50 applied and reapplied after a couple of hours I have sun protective clothing in abundance.Solbari do a whole range of clothing https://www.solbari.co.uk/ walleroo do amazing hats https://www.wallaroohats.co.uk/ Lifejacket do my creams https://lifejacketskinprotection.com/product/sun-gel-very-high/

There are many other companies doing clothing but you have to research the fabric specification - for instance Rohan do some tea shirt/base layers that are SPF40 but you have to look closely at the detail. As a cyclist I have found that a lot of the major brands have specialist sun protection lines.

Go out there and enjoy life

Good luck to you both and stay safe.

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Hi everyone!