Melanoma's Sweet Spot

Subscriber Content Preview
Only active subscribers can view the whole article here

As I watched an old dear friend, a very well-traveled diver, drift in and out of consciousness, with not much more time to live, I wondered about the beginnings of the melanoma that had metastasized to his brain. He had been a diver for 50 years, starting back in the day when sunscreen meant Coppertone so we could return home bronzed and handsome. I don't know if he used Coppertone, but I did.

While a preponderance of us divers are quite sun-shy these days, those of us who were diving in the '70s and '80s were generally oblivious to of the sun's danger and thought a good tan made us look healthy. I liked that look until 1988, when my dermatologist spotted a serious melanoma on the inside of my arm; a surgeon took out a marble-sized piece of flesh with wide margins and got it. I can't be sure of the day I spawned that cancer, but I do remember snoozing on a lounge chair for a couple of hours on Little Cayman after two dives, a big lunch, and a cold beer, my arms behind my head, my body getting toasted. That one day could have shortened my life....

Subscribers: Read the full article here

---

Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email. And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent
Get a free monthly email and a sample issue!