| New Look Ernieflag - 3 Years On |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Mark W |
| Wednesday, 29 June 2011 08:10 |
As we relaunch the new look website, I think it is worth remembering why it was orignially set up. We try to have some fun on here but as it’s core, we are attempting to bring to people’s attention the fact that Ernie Cooksey lost his life to malignant melanoma at a ridiculously young age and to: 1) Remember Ernie and the spirit that he brought to Oldham Athletic in probably our darkest hour
2) Remind people about the dangers of spending too much time in the sun without adequate protection.
 In the spirit of remembering Ernie, we are delighted to have a guest piece from Sarah on Ernie’s career at Rochdale here. You can read about his career at Oldham here
The original piece on malignant melanoma (here) is as relevant now as it was when it was written three years ago but I thought it was worth adding a bit of an update. If one person reads it and acts differently because of it, it must be worthwhile. Good News on the fight against malignant melanoma De Montford University have recently received £75,000 for research into improving early diagnosis of malignant melanoma from Hope Against Cancer. This is being used to develop a tool which they believe can provide early detection of melanoma.
Early protection is crucial as the earlier it is detected, the higher the chance of successful treatment. This can be seen in the statistic that 90% of people detected with Stage 1 melanoma live over 5 years whereas that drops to under 50% for stage 3. Recent Updated guidelines For sunbathing in the UK, guidelines as issued by The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) suggested that a sun cream with a protection of Factor 15 would be suitable in the UK. In the last couple of months, that has been questioned by The Drug & Therapeutics Bulletin which states that Factor 30 is required and stresses that this must be used regularly and not too thinly. Malignant melanoma in the UK You might think that the British weather would protect us from malignant melanoma. After all, it seems a very rare occurance that we actually see the sun. The truth, however, couldn’t be further removed from that assumption.
The UK actually has the 7th highest rates of malignant melanoma in Europe with Scandinavia and Holland leading the table. Our rates are significanly higher than in many hotter countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. Presumably that is because our skin is not used to the sun and so even a little exposure creates serious damage. Rates of malignant melanoma diagnoses are also increasing dramatically with over 16 people per 1,000 diagnosed in 2008 compared with under 10 per 1,000 a decade earlier. The risks also increase with age with only 10% of diagnoses in the under 35s but 15% in people in their 40s and another 17% in their 50s. This only increases as you get older. Symptoms The key symptoms are the following with moles on your body:
- Getting bigger
- Changing shape, particularly getting an irregular edge
- Changing colour - getting darker, becoming patchy or multi-shaded
- Itching or painful
- Bleeding or becoming crusty
- Looks inflamed
If you spot any of these signs, you should go to the doctor straight away. Moles with 3 or more different shades of brown or black are particularly likely to be melanoma. Melanomas are most common on the back in men and the legs in women. As mentioned earlier, pre-cancerous moles can usually be removed under local anaesthetic. An early melanoma can be cured in this way. But if you leave them, they can become very difficult to treat.
|
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 05 July 2011 10:37 |