Anyone who knew my dad, knew he had his shirt off, shorts on at the slightest glimmer of sunshine. He loved it. His bald head would glow like a beacon on an evening after a day of sun whilst doing the gardening.

And god, the photos we have of him when we used to go to Spain for our main holidays from 1997-98 onwards, god his whole body would be glowing red.

Needless to say dad got burnt a lot when out in the sun..yes mother used to slap sunscreen on him but still he would be in and out the sea or the swimming pools and maybe missed a couple of coatings between mam making sure us kids were all sun creamed up!

The sun was his love and ultimately his nemesis..because if he knew then what he knew would happen four years ago this coming September, he would have layered the sun cream on by the bottle. I never thought I’d be without my Dad so early in my life. Words cannot do justice to how that effects me each day or how it has effected my brothers and other family members but more importantly how it has affected the love of his life, my mother.

To hear people joking about how burnt they have gotten whilst away on holiday and posting pictures of their sun burn makes my heart burn with a fiery rage and guts me at the same time because there is such a relaxed atmosphere revolving getting burnt STILL.

Regardless to people putting sun cream on, it has to be applied religiously, people hold onto the fact the bottle says 24hr protection or water resistant..they shouldn’t be allowed to put this on the bottle because it is just not the case! So much more awareness and research into Melanoma needs to be out there on adverts, research getting funded in the universities  to help smash through the lack of severity that seems to revolve around melanoma.

Amy Graham