Two years ago, I had a small skin cancer removed from my scalp.  It was not life-threatening, as many melanoma conditions are.  The doctor who operated told me that I had most probably got the cancer about 40-50 years ago, when I was living in Australia.  It had taken that long to 'mature'.  Of course, in Australia in the 1950s and 60s, it was common for people to lie on the beach half the day, doing what Australians correctly call 'sun-baking'.  I avoided that but wore no hats.  My mother died of melanoma cancer.
Recently, my brother, who lives in Sydney, raised the issue of ignorant Australians roasting themselves in their own sweat without any protection, and how it is continuing.


I used to present a story called Kid In A Bin to my English class of 12-13 year olds. It is a curious story with a strong message.  The author left the story unfinished, so that the pupils could end it themselves.
The story is about a boy who lives in a garbage bin in a branch of McDonald's.  He hides in the bin all day and emerges at night to make himself a meal in the kitchen.  We come to see that he has paper-clippings in the bin with him, newspaper articles that reveal that his father and sister have been searching for him since he left home, immediately after his mother died.  She had died of melanoma, and, sadly, the little boy overheard a doctor say to another doctor:
"When will people learn that the sun can kill you?"
So the boy decided to stay out of the sun - permanently!  And the best place he could think of to hide was in one of the McDonald's bins.
One night, as he is creeping to the kitchen , he sees his father and sister staring through the window at him.  He has no option but to let them in.  At this point the story stops - for the pupils' ending.
Most wrote that his father explained to him that a little sun is good for you, but a lot of sun is bad.  Reassured, the boy returns home with his father and sister.
One pupil I recall vividly, a natural lateral-thinker, wrote as his finale:
"When the boy had finished explaining to his father and sister why he had hidden in a bin, they agreed that it was the best place to be, and so all three now live in a bin in McDonald's."