13 May 2024 , 08:09
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A Labour MP has revealed he had to have skin cancer cut from his lung as he revealed a scan saved him from a "death sentence".
Sir Chris Bryant issued a powerful warning as the weather improves, saying that sun damage can be a killer. Sir Chris branded sun beds "killing machines" as he outlined his ordeal.
The Rhondda MP had a melanoma cut out in 2019 after his husband Jared spotted a mole on the back of his head. In January a scan revealed a problem with his lung - which turned out to be skin cancer.
He told Sky News: "They'd found something in my lung which they thought was probably a melanoma - not lung cancer, skin cancer in my lung, which would obviously be very serious.
"That's stage four metastatic cancer, so very frightening." He said: "I then had to have a robot inside my lung, they collapsed my lung, cut a little bit out. It was tiny, but amazingly, if I hadn't gone for my scan I'd have been coming back in a year's time, 18 months time, saying, 'I've got this really bad chest'. And it would have been a death sentence."
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Sir Chris said he was worried that many would have been out in the bright weather over the weekend unaware of the danger the sun poses. He warned: "Skin cancer really does kill. And yesterday lots of people would have been out in the sun, absolutely enjoying the fact that they could sunbathe and all the rest of it. But the truth is that all of this stuff happened to my head and the skin cancer in my lung, all of that is because of sun damage."
And in a plea to viewers he said: "The most important thing is, especially for kids, but for everybody, please avoid the sun, cover up, use high factor sunscreen. Remember, the sunscreen can run out of date.
"I would urge people never ever use sunbeds, I think they're killing machines I'm afraid. And in particular please please protect kids. Don't joke about getting pink in the sun, I know it's the great British joke, but it's not funny."
Cancer Research UK says there are more than 16.000 cases of melanoma each year on average, with the disease causing over 2,300 deaths. It says 86% of cases are preventable.