SLIP SLOP SLAP

'Slip-Slop-Slap' is the name for a health campaign in Australia exhorting people to "slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat" when they go out into the sun in order to prevent skin cancer. It is probably Australia's most recognisable health message.

The campaign started in 1981 and its mascot is a seagull called Sid. Since this campaign was introduced along with advertisements and a jingle, the incidence of skin cancer in Australia has decreased.

The health campaign was extended in later years to encourage the use of sunglasses. That is, slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen, slap on a hat and wrap on some sunnies: "Slip, Slop, Slap, Wrap". By this stage however the skin cancer aware message of the campaign had successfully been absorbed into the Australian psyche and "slip, slop slap, wrap" was neither as memorable or as necessary as its precursor.

I was glad to see that there are warnings in the hotel information packs about the dangers of sun bathing. So often at the Coast you see these pale skinned pommies walking around with blistering red skin from "enjoying" the sun a little too much !

Not that I can talk, despite both parents having had literally thousands of skin cancers cut/burnt/frozen off over the years and a couple removed myself - I managed to get burnt myself a few years back....

It was possibly the stupidest thing I've ever done ! I was filming an interview on the beach and hadn't put ANY sunscreen on at all ! Half way through filming the sun came out and I just kept on filming. Needless to say that it was incredibly painful. My skin had been used to the UK weather for about 3 years at the time so it blistered quite badly & was all swollen and I had to sleep with wet towels on my arms and face. You can just about see my watch tan....never again people, never again....