Dr Liz Patton: Lifestyle change and cheap air fares one cause of the rise in numbers affected by melanoma

THE figures represent a very worrying trend, as melanoma is one of the most serious and deadly forms of cancer that exist.

A reason for the dramatic increase that we have seen is because of lifestyle change with a real increase in the numbers of people travelling to sunnier climates during the winter and getting burnt as they lay on the beach.

Even children are in danger of this increase in people sunbathing in overseas climates due to the rise of the inexpensive air fare.

We’ve also seen a real rise in sunbed use, which is extremely dangerous, and something that often affects young women as young as 14 or 15 years old.

There are genetic factors in people getting melanoma, but the rise we’ve seen is mainly due to over exposure to the sun, whether that’s through sunbed use or the increasingly easy access to air flights to sunnier climes.

One response to what is a very disturbing problem should be through high-profile public awareness campaigns like the “slip, slap, slop” campaign in the 1980s Australia, which heavily promoted the use of sun cream.

We’ve seen moves to regulate the use of sunbeds to restrict the age people have to be before they can use them as well as saying what dose people can receive. This has been incredibly helpful, but we do need see more done to promote the dangers of over exposure to the sun through education,

There has been an increase in the numbers of young people with melanoma and that’s something that will be reflected in these statistics showing an overall dramatic increase in that form of cancer.

The primary risk factor with melanoma is that of damage to people’s skin caused by the sun, which is the main cause of the increase in melanoma in Scotland over the last decade.

• Dr Liz Patton is a senior researcher and author based at the Edinburgh Cancer Research UK Centre at the University of Edinburgh