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Hugh Jackman, 47, told fans on Instagram that solar protection could shield them from the form of skin cancer he is currently battling.
On Monday, the Wolverine star Hugh Jackman urged fans to wear sunscreen after skin cancer cell removal procedure. The 47-year-old actor posted the warning on his Instagram account with accompanying pictures of his bandaged post-op nose. The page was immediately flooded with thousands of supportive messages.
Yet, Jackman has been battling the non-lethal form of skin cancer, also known as Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), for several years now. He had several surgical interventions to remove the cancerous skin cells from both his nose and shoulder.
Nevertheless, this type of cancer doesn’t result in death if it is left untreated. In the worst case scenario, it could lead to disfiguration. Under one of his post-op selfies, Jackman explains that Basal Cell is the fate of people who stay away from sunscreen.
He added that the disease is one of the mildest forms but it is also serious. He pledged fans to use solar protection products and go to a dermatologist regularly. The actor’s representatives told reporters that the latest surgery was a success, and that the star was ‘fine.’
Since 2013, Jackman has used the social media to warn people against the condition thrice. This Monday’s intervention was the fourth to his nose. He learned that he had BCC in Nov. 2013. He went to a doctor after his wife urged him to get a mark on his nose checked.
He first opened up about his struggles with skin cancer last year when he told reporters that he was shocked to learn that he now has a condition he has to keep in check for the rest of his life.
He recalls that he was shocked first and foremost by the word ‘cancer.’ But he thinks that his Australian ancestry might have something to do with it. In Australia, people stay a lot in the sun and rarely use sunscreen. That was the case with him in his childhood and young adulthood as well.
“I never wore sunscreen growing up so I was a prime candidate for [skin cancer],”
Jackman said in a 2015 interview.
He also needs to undergo regular checkups to see whether a procedure is needed to remove cancer cells from his shoulder, too. Basal-cell carcinoma is the most frequent type of cancer. About 3 million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with BCC every year.
Fortunately the disease nearly never spreads to other regions of the body, but it can disfigure the patient if it is allowed to grow.
Image Source: Flickr
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