Topical or what? With the current weather conditions a blog by Dr Hugo De La Peña MD, PhD, FRCP on summer sun safety couldn’t be more apt. Hugo is a renowned cancer specialist, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Cancer Research UK ambassador. He took part in a recent Cancer Research TV campaign to help raise much-needed funds for clinical trials. He’s helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds by taking part in the London Marathon 2023 and Race for Life events across the UK. Dr Hugo is an NHS consultant and an educational and motivational speaker on cancer, its prevention, treatment and cure.
Dr Hugo de la Pena talks about summer sun safety
Not a lesson on avoiding the sun
Let me start first by stressing that the benefits from sunlight are MONUMENTAL so this is not a lesson on avoiding the sun. Feeling the warm sunshine on your face will give you a few seconds of instant inner peace. The benefits of our sun on our mental health are priceless and countless.
If you’re on your own, the sun will make you appreciate the nature around you even more. And, for a lot of people, the sunny days will make you want to socialise with family and friends – especially getting together for outdoor activities. As always, I don’t tell people what to do, my advice is for people to take it or leave it. It’s based on scientific data, but also on life experience. I had successful treatment for an early skin cancer caused by sun exposure.
A British thing
I don’t deny it’s a very British thing to do, for boys and men to get their shirts off as soon as the sun shines. And for some women to sunbathe in their bikinis in the park. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, but remember that it’s the chronic unprotected sun exposure that causes skin damage and cancer. It’s almost impossible to get skin cancer without sun exposure. I myself had a small and early skin cancer in my arm called squamous cell carcinoma. These cancers are slow growing and, in my case, I got successful treatment with a chemotherapy cream. Other cancers of the skin though, melanomas, are far more serious, aggressive and lethal if diagnosed late.
Here are some tips to help you enjoy the sunshine in a healthy way.
Don’t be a sitting duck
Be aware of the sun when you’re not meaning or wanting to get exposed, for example whilst driving. If you have a long commute or a long drive when going on holiday, your right arm (if you are the driver) and face can get exposed to the sun for hours without realising. Skin cancers in the right forearm and face are very common.
If you go to a music festival, the horse races, a football game, Wimbledon, the F1 race, beer gardens, etc, you could be sitting or standing at the same location and can get exposed to the sun for hours without realising.
Ergo, it’s always a good idea to carry sun block as routine – whether you need o or not. Then, if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t leave or move and the sun is beating down, you can put on sun block on the spot. In fact, why not put it on any way?
If you scratch my back, I will scratch yours
When out with friends at beer gardens, the beach, the pool and BBQs, you’ll have lots of fun. But once you have a few drinks, you will stay out in the sun for longer and will become inadvertently more careless. Thus, it’s a good idea to have someone in the group to remind people every two hours to put on sun cream again. As we have someone who’s a named driver – have someone who is a named ‘sun cream’ nagger!
More swimming, more sun cream
When swimming outdoors, even if your sun cream is waterproof, it will last less time than usual. When you swim you also get double sun exposure. The first hit from direct sun on to you, but also a second hit on reflection from the water with extra sun bouncing back to you, known as the mirror effect. So, when in the water, reapply sun cream every hour, instead of every two hours. Ask someone with you to remind you and support each other in re-applying sun block on a regular basis.
Children First
As with any emergency, children (and teenagers) always come first when it comes to summer sun safety. Pay attention to their behaviour in the sun. Artificial tanning ‘sunbeds’ are forbidden in the under 18s in the UK thanks to a proven link between them and skin cancer. But try to discourage older children from using them.
When basking in the sun to get a tan, encourage them to put on sun block often and to sit in a shady spot or under a large shady umbrella. Roasting their skin in the sun is dangerous because roasting is exactly what will happen with the risk of blistering.
Toddlers need to wear sun suits when swimming or at the beach that most of their body because they are particularly vulnerable to the sun.
Cancer does not discriminate over skin colour but …
Yet when it comes to skin cancer, there is no doubt that the fairer your skin is, the more at risk you are. So, if you’re as white as a friendly ghost or have lots of lovely cute little freckles, take extra care, because you are most at risk. In the sunshine ensure sun block, shade and a hat are your best friends for your own summer sun safety.
Further – did you know that melanin production – the thing that gives you your tan – has a cut-off point?
Don’t stay outside for longer than your skin can create melanin. Melanin is the pigment responsible for tanning. Everyone has a melanin cut-off point, which is usually 2 to 3 hours. After this amount of time, your skin will not get darker in a certain day. If you tan past that point, you’ll be putting your skin in harm’s way. Find out more here.
Artist shares Turner’s love of the sea in Teatime Talk at Malmesbury’s Athelstan Museum
Athelstan Museum Turner Teatime Talk. A series of fascinating teatime talks continues at the Athelstan Museum in Malmesbury on Wednesday June 21. This time with an insight into Turner and the Sea.
The renowned Romantic artist Joseph Mallord William Turner became known as ‘the painter of the light’ and ‘the father of modern art’. His watercolour of Malmesbury Abbey hangs in the Athelstan Museum thanks to funding from the National Lottery.
In this latest talk, History of Art, teacher Fiona James looks at how he used paint, light and colour to express the mystery and moods of the sea.
Fiona said: ‘The sea always beckoned Turner and I share his lifelong affinity. Days after being born in London, the family whisked me away to live on the coast in Cornwall. Thus I love being close to the sea in all its seasons.’
Fiona James who will be giving the Athelstan Museum Turner Teatime Talk
Turner’s seascapes
Through Turner’s paintings of seascapes he pushed boundaries by reflecting the time he lived in and depicting the issues of the day. He shows some of the conflicts of the era, the growth of tourism and the plight of fishermen.
Fiona is keen to reassure people who may be considering coming to the event, that the talk is informal and not overly intellectual.
She said: ‘You don’t need to be an artist or to know a lot about art. It’s accessible for everyone and I want people to feel at ease, to raise questions and to think about what the paintings evoke for them.’
Fiona trained in fine art then history of art as a mature student. She then went on to work at the ICA (Institute of Comtemporary Arts) and at The Wellcome Institute in their picture collection. She then went into teaching and taught art and history of art at Clifton College, Bristol. Later she became head of History of Art at Cheltenham Ladies’ College for fifteen years. Today she teaches history of art to adults in Crudwell and Nailsworth. She often gives talks in her specialist areas of interest including British artists, the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Italian Renaissance.
Fiona’s tea time talk will take place in the Julia and Hans Rausing Building close to the museum. Tea will be served from 2.30 pm with the talk due to start at 3 pm. Tickets are £6.50 (including tea) and are available online and in the museum shop.
The Mayor’s parlour & mace – two Swindon gems if ever there were. And at last, after three decades in Swindon, I got to properly see this fabulous room – and the mace. Big thanks to the outgoing Labour mayor, Abdul Amin for making it happen for me.
When I wrote Swindon in 50 Buildings I included the civic offices and the image below of the mayor’s parlour from the 1930s. I did take some photos – see bottom of the post – but they really don’t do it justice. You’d need to be David Bailey to manage that TBF.
The Mayor’s parlour & mace – 1930s image of the mayor’s parlour courtesy of Swindon local studies
The Mayor’s Mace
The Swindon Mayor’s Mace
So, aside from the Art Deco, living, breathing, Hercule Poirot set wonderment that is the mayor’s parlour, what I want to focus on in this post is the mayor’s mace. Because this isn’t any old mace – but we’ll come to that later. First of all a look at the mace in general.
The Ceremonial Significance of the Mace
In essence, the highly decorated ceremonial mace is an evolvement of a bludgeon – for it once served as a weapon of war.
With the introduction of armour, fighting men began binding their wooden clubs with iron. Then later the club began being made entirely of iron and steel.
This website about the Llantrisant Macetells us that the mace found itself adopted as the weapon of the Sergeants at Arms appointed first by Philip II of France (1180-1223) to guard the king from suspected assassins. It’s believed that Richard I (Lionheart) of England appointed a similar bodyguard
During mediaeval times, the royal Serjeants-at-Arms were distinguished by their power of arrest without a warrant. To an increasing extent, their maces – originally ordinary weapons of war, similar to a club – became their emblems of authority. They became stamped with the royal arms. And in an age in which few men could read or write, the Serjeants effected their arrests by showing their maces and not by producing any form of written warrant.
At length it became the custom to inscribe royal arms on the top and to decorate the handle end. As time went on the mace became less a weapon and more a symbol as it became covered with precious metal. It’s now a weapon of war no longer but a symbol of authority as its incorporated coronet expanded into a full-sized crown. And the whole item swelled to much larger proportions.
Today, many government bodies, such as the House of Commons, universities, local authorities and other institutions have ceremonial Maces. They’re often paraded in academic, parliamentary or civic rituals and processions.
A footnote
There’s a somewhat curious footnote about the mace, as this historical development of the mace points out. ‘The most curious and interesting point to note about the evolution of the mace is that it was also a revolution. The hitting end has become the innocuous base and the handle knob has become the head. Ergo we now carry the ceremonial mace upside down.
The mace should precede the mayor when entering and leaving the council chamber. It should always repose in front of the mayor when the council sits. When the mayor is seated, the mace rests horizontally before him with the crown to his right hand. In church, the crown should point towards the altar.
The Swindon mace
Measuring four feet in length, well proportioned and covered in silver gilt, Swindon’s mace is the most valuable piece of Swindon’s insignia. It takes the customary form, with an open arched crown surmounted by an orb and cross. There’s a replica of the royal arms on the first cap beneath the arches. The four arched compartments contain respectively:
The royal initials E VIIIR crowned
The Thamesdown coat of arms (1974)
The coat of arms for the former borough of Swindon (1936)
The coat of arms for the borough of Swindon (1997)
Below the mace head it bears four oak leaf and acorn brackets. The staff is divided into three sections, by two ornamental spheres. It terminates in a decorated foot knob.
The foot knob has six compartments, one of which contains the inscription: ‘1936, Presented by WE Morse Esq …Mayor of Swindon, 1914-1916. Hallmarked London 1935.’
A most particular mace
But … as interesting as all the above surely is, our Swindon mace is of a particular interest. And that’s because it bears the royal cipher of Edward VIII – who of course was never crowned because he abdicated in 1936.As far as we know, as far as it’s been possible to verify, there are only five other maces in the country bearing Edward VIII’s cypher. And I think that’s rather cool.
There’s a story that the Queen Mother, on visiting our town, asked to have the mace back and the mayor at the time refused to hand it over. Now, I’m unsure of the veracity of this tale but if it’s true … I admire the man’s nerve!
Now for the promised dreadful photos! But they give a sense of just how wonderful this room is. And it’s stuffed with wonderful things.
Angela Atkinson in the mayor’s parlour in Swindon civic officesSwindon’s Coat of Arms The Mayor’s Parlour & Mace – the fireplaceTable inside the mayor’s parlour
So – hands up who knew we have here a Swindon independent film festival? Well – you might but I didn’t until I started seeing their tweets. So here’s a wee post about it.
Swindon Independent Film Festival – Putting Swindon in the Limelight
A guy by the name of Doug Kirby started it off, in 2018, to bring creatives together. There were a number of people doing film-related stuff and he wanted to pull it all together. Over the ensuing years the whole thing has evolved and this year the festival has a new team of four to take it forward.
As they point out: ‘Swindon has a rich history linked to films and filmmakers and the Independent Film Festival aims to continue to showcase the best of Swindon’s film scene. So, that’s why, if you’re a filmmaker from Swindon you can enter your film to our festival for free!’
You can find their website here: https://www.swindonfilmfestival.com – though it’s my understanding it’s being updated. Once it’s updated they will share the news on their social media channels. They tell me it’s not far off being ready now.
Their website tells us that the festival aims to showcase both the best of independent cinema and to create a supportive and diverse community of film makers and film lovers.
I do like that they have the Corn Exchange in Old Town as their logo. That might look and seem a tad random but there is relevance. Once that building had ceased to be a town hall and corn exchange it underwent many incarnations. And one of those was as the Rink Cinema with seating for 1,000 people. And aside from that, having this much-neglected heritage asset as their logo keeps it in the public eye.
How wonderful it would be if that ‘building’ were in better shape. I use the word building loosely – it’s really little more than a facade help up by a bush!
Paralympian Louise Hunt Skelley to commentate once more at this year’s Wimbledon Championships
Paralympian Commentating at Wimbeldon. Former British wheelchair tennis player Louise Hunt will be sharing her expertise while commentating at this year’s Wimbledon championships. The championship has, this year, provided more opportunities for wheelchair players.
I’m so excited to have involvement in the tournament which is going to be more inclusive than ever,’ Louise said.
Paralympian Commentating at Wimbeldon – Louise Hunt, Paralympian
The July wheelchair tennis tournament is this year taking place over five days instead of four. This move will allow more public access to the sport and also to further support the players.
Marc Mccarroll, NAGP Coach for the Wheelchair Performance Pathway and member of the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) said:
‘This will give the public another day to see our sport in action. I’ll help the players maintain the high level we’ve seen over the years, due to the demands that grass has on wheelchair players.
‘Also off the back of last year’s success where wheelchair matches took place on Court 1 and the crowds that brought to the sport, it will be great to build on this and continue to see the sport grow in this country.’
Over the eight
Louise, who lives in Wroughton, is celebrating commentating on her eighth Wimbledon tournament and has some tips on who to look out for this time round.
One to watch this year is Novak Djokovic. He’s won Wimbledon six times and is currently the defending champion. The main reason he’s one to watch though is that this year he is chasing a record-breaking twenty-one Grand Slam titles! If he’s successful in winning the championships again, he would surpass both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer!
‘Jack Draper from the UK has had a considerable rise in his rankings this past year and his powerful leftie style is always exciting to watch. He’s got so much potential and I’m looking forward to seeing what impact he can make this year!
‘In the wheelchair competition, world number two from Japan, Tokito Oda, is definitely one to watch. At a mere sixteen years old he has had a phenomenal year, flying into the top ten in the world very fast.
‘In January he made his first grand slam final on his debut at the Australian Open. Then in April he became the youngest winner of the Japan Open (Super Series) men’s singles title in Iizuka City. A super nice young man with incredible talent and determination, I can’t wait to see him make an impact.’
Louise
Louise represented Great Britain at both the London and Rio Paralympics. She’s won thirteen senior singles and forty-one senior doubles titles, with a career-high world ranking of Ten. She made two Wimbledon appearances as a player. Once in 2015 in the doubles and the following year in both the singles and doubles event. This was the first year that the event held singles matches.
Today Louise is a tennis commentator, tournament director and inclusion specialist as well as a motivational speaker. Find out more about her by visiting http://www.louisehunt.co.uk
