'I COMPLETELY FREAKED OUT'
Marie Claire Australia|December 2024
Former model, TV presenter and magazine editor Deborah Hutton talks about her well-publicised skin cancer surgeries, how lucky she feels to be in her sixties, and how we all need to stop putting off a skin check
Sally Hunwick
'I COMPLETELY FREAKED OUT'

Think back to the 1980s when there were crocheted bikinis and your arse was hanging out on the beach; that was that 40 years ago, and nothing has changed.

Growing up, I lived in western Sydney, and when I was 16 I used to catch a train and two buses to get to Bondi Beach. I'd go down to the beach, sunbake topless and just fry. Then in my thirties, I'd go overseas, have a few weeks in Europe and sunbake. It was all about how good it felt. "Oh, my God, look at my brown skin"; "I feel better, thinner." It all felt like such a good idea at the time.

I had a skin cancer when I was working on television with Channel Nine in 2011. It was nothing, just a little tiny red dot. I was in Melbourne and when I got back to the hotel and took my makeup off with a hot washcloth it started bleeding. I was like, "Fuck, I'm in trouble here." I was completely freaking out. It was an infiltrating BCC and I ended up needing to have surgery.

There are different types of BCCs [basal cell carcinomas] and SCCs [squamous cell carcinomas], and then there's melanoma. This was an infiltrating cancer and you just want to avoid it entering the bloodstream, so getting the surgery was pretty urgent.

After the surgery, I got my skin checked every six months. Then, just before Covid, 10 years later, I went in for a check and they told me I needed a biopsy on "those two". And I thought, "What do you mean, two?" I had only seen one. That's what happens; the skin cancer causes a weakness, which the cancer cells target. I had to go in for a second surgery.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2024 من Marie Claire Australia.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2024 من Marie Claire Australia.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

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