Sydney, 12 June 2022 – Greg ‘Mo’ Matthews, the former Australian test cricketer, is known as much for his ‘dashing batsmanship’ and deceiving offbreak as he is for his ‘unorthodox’ personality.
In his heyday, Greg was seen by some as a bit of an outsider who wasn’t afraid to speak up. Now, he’s bringing this same ‘straight bat’ approach to an issue that’s close to his heart – skin cancer.
Like others in his league, Greg has had numerous non-melanoma skin cancers removed over the years. He wasn’t too concerned, but then discovered that up to four Australians may lose their life to advanced non-melanoma skin cancer every day [1].
In fact, Australia has the highest rate of non-melanoma skin cancer in the world. Approximately 1,700 Australians were estimated to have lost their lives to advanced non-melanoma skin cancer in 2020 [4, 1].
To mark Global Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Awareness Day on Monday, June 13, Greg is stepping up to the crease to launch a public awareness campaign, because it has been impacting Australians for too long.
Greg Matthews
“Australians need to be aware that advanced non-melanoma skin cancers can be deadly. Anyone that’s spent a life in the sun, but particularly blokes like me who didn’t have the benefit of slip slop slap when they were young, need to see the full picture of their skin cancer risk.”
Despite public awareness campaigns over the last 40 years, the incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer has steadily increased in Australia [1] and will continue to rise in the coming years as the Australian population ages [2].
While anyone can develop non-melanoma skin cancer, it’s more common as you age [4] and people who live an outdoor life are at significantly increased risk, including cricketers, construction workers and farmers [5,6,7].
The potential dangers of non-melanoma skin cancer remain hidden in broad daylight. It’s time to change that. Talk to your healthcare professional about your skin cancer risk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQSRHA2TSQs
