SKIN IN THE GAME
The active woman’s SUN & SWEAT guide
With the exception of frozen margaritas, taking your workout outdoors might be the best thing about the sun-drenched months. Consider this your road map to raising your SPF-exercise game
When a friend spotted a red lump on Georgie Rutherford’s left arm in May 2019, the 34-year-old professional triathlete brushed off her pal’s concern – and forgot it was even there. But four months later, while on holiday, Georgie’s brothers brought up the bump again. Worried it looked ‘big and angry’, they urged her to seek medical attention. Even then, doctors assured her it was a benign collection of visible blood vessels. It would be several months before Georgie had the lump biopsied, and only then did she learn the news. ‘It was stage 2C melanoma,’ Georgie, now 38, recalls. ‘I went numb. How could this have gone from harmless blood vessels to cancer so quickly?’ During those months, Georgie’s melanoma had progressed – and at the time of her diagnosis, doctors said there was a 60% chance of the cancer coming back after surgery.
While not the most common of cancers in the UK, there are around 16,700 new melanoma skin cancer cases each year, or around 46 every day – and rates are rising. Since the 1990s, incidences in the UK have more than doubled. Still, the diagnosis didn’t make sense to Georgie. Though fair-skinned with blonde hair, she was fit and energetic, with no family history of skin cancer. ‘I assumed people with cancer felt sick in some way,’ she explains. But she didn’t; far from it.
RUNNING THE RISK
At the time of her diagnosis, Georgie had recently retired from her athletic career. Having competed as a triathlete from the ages of 18 to 35 – first at the University of Bath and later at international level – she would often spend 12 to 15 hours a week training outside, more focused on her workouts than on her sun-protection habits. ‘I’d put sun cream on in the summer or at the beach, but not during training,’ she says. ‘I’d use some during long runs or when I was cycling, but I never reapplied or wore it during outdoor swims.’ Sadly, there’s a good chance those habits contributed to her diagnosis.
As many as 86% of melanoma skin cancer cases in the UK are preventable, according to Cancer Research UK, so protecting your skin when outside – whether you’re pounding the pavement or reclining by a pool – is paramount. What’s more, it’s thought that outdoor exercise is on the rise – ahangover from pandemicera habits; ONS data reveals that more than 75% of home workers left the house to exercise during the first lockdown, with the trend continuing the following year. And while all this time outdoors is generally a good thing, i
