Natalie Barr: Sunrise presenter opens up on skin cancer diagnosis, confesses to lack of protection
Sunrise presenter Nat Barr has opened up on her recent skin cancer diagnosis, revealing the news was “a huge wake-up call”.
The 56-year-old confessed she didn’t try to protect her skin much when she was younger, and used baby oil on her skin to sunbathe on Scarborough Beach in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
“We didn’t think about skin cancer back then and only wore a hat if it matched our outfit,” she told New Idea.
The TV personality recalled the horrifying moment she received her cancer diagnosis.
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“When you hear the ‘C’ word, the shock goes right through you ... your mind goes off on a tangent,” she said.
Barr added she now goes the extra mile in protecting herself against the sun.
“I am going to double my efforts when it comes to protecting myself because being told you have cancer, even at the earliest stage, really just brings home what you could stand to lose if the diagnosis was worse – like it is for so many other Australians,” she said.
The mother of two revealed the news last week after discovering what she thought was a pimple on her nose that turned out to be skin cancer.
“I’ve had this pimple on my nose, it’s been about three weeks. It keeps going up, down, up, down, won’t go away,” Barr explained.
Her concerns prompted her to see a dermatologist, who diagnosed the 3mm lesion as cancerous.
The specialist used AI to confirm, with any score over seven considered cancerous.
Barr scored a 7.4, and was later diagnosed with skin cancer following a biopsy.
“That was so tiny, it was just a tiny little red thing. He also takes photos of your whole body and puts it in the AI machine,” she said.
“So when you go back a year later, the AI machine can detect whether there has been a change quicker and better than the human eye can.”
The TV anchor has been instructed to use anti-cancer cream and has undergone red light therapy to kill cancer cells.