It was no great surprise to Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew when he was . or signup to continue reading , but his childhood love of the waves has come at a heavy price. "There was a couple of summers where I really got cooked," he said.
"I remember waking up one morning when I was about 13 and my lips were stuck together, you know, because of all the sunburn and they'd scabbed up." Rabbit said while kids today were much more sun-smart, things were very different in his youth. "Back in the day you, you put a little bit of zinc on in the morning.
.. surfers don't just go out and have a swim for half an hour.
.. you surf for five hours, six hours a day.
" He had had numerous precancerous growths, keratoses, and basal cell carcinomas removed by the time he heard the dreaded 'm-word' in 1992. He was planning a trip to Bali when his osteopath's assistant noticed an irregular growth on his back. He went straight to his skin cancer specialist and was told to put his travel plans on hold.
His growth was biopsied and the lab results confirmed the growth to be melanoma the next day. Luckily it had been caught early and the doctor managed to remove all of it. "He just stitched me up and, basically off I went.
.. I went to Indonesia with all these stitches in the back.
.. I'm incredibly lucky.
" Rabbit is extremely vigilant these days. He has regular skin checks every three or four months, knowing that some cancers are more aggressive and can become dangerous very quickly. He has been treated for mu.
