A LOOK BACK AT THE 2017 ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE’S STEVENS LECTURER, DR CHRISTOPHER ROWLAND PAYNE

London Dermatology | 10 February 2025

Skin Cancer & Sun Addiction

Is it possible to have too much or too little of the sun? Sun can be both good and bad. Sun exposure is necessary for health, wellbeing and helping our bodies to synthesise Vitamin D. Yet excessive sunshine carries many risks, including skin cancer and damage to the skin and eyes. How can the sun affect your wellbeing? In this year’s Stevens Lecture Dr Christopher Rowland Payne delves into the medical context behind the sun and skin cancer. It is the most common cancer to affect humans, accounting for 2500 deaths each year in the UK; but it is also the most curable of all cancers. He will also look at how, despite the risks of excessive sunshine, many people continue to deliberately seek a suntan, the way this can sometimes become a compulsion and, for a small proportion of people, how it can reach the level of a self-harm behavioural addiction.

Click here to watch the 2017 Royal Society of Medicine Stevens Lecture with Dr Christopher Rowland Payne.