Melanoma is often referred to as ‘Australia’s national cancer’, and as another blistering summer comes to an end, it’s important we remember that.
The statistics from the Melanoma Institute Australia are terrifying – 16,800 of us will be diagnosed with skin cancer this year.
Melanoma is the most common cancer for Australians aged between 20 and 39, and one Aussie dies from the disease every six hours. It is also the second-most common for men after prostate cancer. Nine newsreader Peter Overton knows the numbers all too well – as he’s been one of them.
Peter was first diagnosed in November 2020, with a melanoma on his temple which was successfully removed. More surgeries have since followed.
“I have had five melanoma operations,” Peter, 58, tells New Idea.
“The most delicate was removed from my forehead. The remainder have been on my back and legs. That’s in addition to countless moles being cut out.”
Peter admits that growing up in the Aussie sun, he wasn’t sun-safe.
“I wasn’t and it is a huge regret,” he says.
“It was almost a badge of honour to roast yourself red and peel off the skin in sheets. The memories are crystal clear, the damage real. I wish I had listened to my dad, a doctor, and my mum, a nurse, to apply sunscreen. My knowledge was limited to sunburn. I don’t even think melanoma was a part of the conversation.”
As the national ambassador for Melanoma Institute Australia, Peter now raises awareness about the disease, and the lifesaving research needed. So, does he have one piece of advice for all Australians regarding melanoma?
“Recently I saw a young, pale-skinned man roasting himself red. I was in shorts, and without hesitation showed him the train-track melanoma scar on my leg,” he says.
“I said that the scar was a result of lying in the sun, without sunscreen. I didn’t hesitate to tell him and show him. I hope he listened. The headline is … we need to stop the glamourisation of tanning.”
It’s advice he’s also shared with Allegra and Giselle, his teen daughters with his wife Jessica Rowe.
Despite his scars and the stress of those cancer diagnoses, for Peter – who recently had surgery to remove a polyp on his vocal cord – life is good right now.
“It’s my 35th year at Nine and I still love going to work and being part of a big team,” he says.
And personally? “[We] just enjoy every day as a family. Very simple!”
