Remember the iconic Slip, Slop, Slap campaign from the Cancer Council in 1981?
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The Australian Institute of Sport is out to take that initiative to a whole new level, with the launch of its new sun safety guidelines for the nation's best athletes, put together in collaboration with Paddle Australia, the Cancer Council, Melanoma Institute of Australia, and Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.
The Sun Safe Position Statement was developed after Paralympic gold medallist Curtis McGrath and Olympian Jamie Roberts learned teammate Bernadette Wallace had been diagnosed with melanoma in 2020.
As rowers, a sport held on open water, the risks seemed obvious, but with AIS chief medical officer Dr David Hughes, a comprehensive set of guidelines for all sports to follow was developed.
"We know for a fact there are about half a dozen cases in high performance athletes around Australia with melanoma," Hughes told The Canberra Times.
"That's a very serious condition and is one of the highest causes of death in young people.
"Once this was brought to our attention, we knew we really needed to ramp this up.
"We're focusing on high performance sport, but there'll be a trickle-down effect to grassroots sport and hopefully to the broader population."
Olympic rower Joshua Hicks had a minor procedure to remove a cancerous mole on his neck, thanks to the support of Rowing Australia that brought in a dermatologist to check the entire team.
He admitted it gave him a huge reality check.
"I know former athletes who are relatively young who have had advanced melanoma, and it's devastating," he said.
"Perhaps we've normalised it in Australia to a degree because we all know someone who has suffered from melanoma, but to be able to prevent that, and de-normalise it would be fantastic."
As co-author of the guidelines which include five levels of sun protection measures, McGrath is now passionate about getting as many sports as possible to implement them.
"They can change the times of day they train, they can change the location, or the equipment and the clothing that we're using," he said.
"All these things can lead to a safer environment."