After sustaining third-degree burns from spending time in the sun, one nurse had a life-changing event.
Charlotte Oliver was using sunscreen when she started to burn while on vacation in Tenerife, and she related her experience on today’s This Morning.
The nurse and mother hoped the first redness on her back would fade, but she ended up in the hospital with second and third degree burns after soaking up additional rays.
After Charlotte went to the hospital 10 days after she first spotted the burn, the doctor informed her it was the “worst sunburn” they’d “ever seen.”
Charlotte informed Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary that she had been shivering all night and had been unwell.
Charlotte hopes to marry in the next few years and wear her dream backless gown, but she is now ‘looking at probable scars’ on the afflicted region.
Not only that, but Charlotte’s sun exposure has elevated her risk of skin cancer by up to 80%, and she will never be able to sit in the sun with her back to the sun again.
Charlotte confessed she was embarrassed by the situation, but added that, even as a nurse, she didn’t anticipate the sun to be able to burn skin “to that level.”
She was bandaged around the burn for three weeks and is now dealing with the fallout.
‘I’ve been really struggling with it, because even though the burns aren’t as bad, I just feel like my skin is just three different colours,’ Charlotte said.
The NHS recommends reapplying sunscreen every two hours and using a sunscreen with a high sun protection factor (SPF).
SPFs are graded from 2 to 50+ based on their level of protection, and UK goods will have a separate ultraviolet A radiation protection (UVA) star rating of up to five stars.
The greater the star rating, the better the protection.
A high UV index can cause sunburn even on ostensibly chilly and gloomy days.
According to Cancer Research, if your UV index is three or above, you should use sunscreen.
According to the organisation, the UK index can be high enough to induce sunburn from mid-March to mid-October.
Wearing a wide-brimmed hat and loose-fitting cover-up garments will also assist keep you sun-safe.
Catch This Morning every weekday at 10am on ITV.