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Bondi Rescue’s Trent Falson takes action to protect his skin

Trent Falson checking his skin
MoleMap Team
September 15, 2022
5 minutes

Trent Fal­son (also known by his nick­name ​“Sin­glets”) has become a house­hold name after star­ring in the hit real­i­ty TV series Bon­di Res­cue. But as a pro­fes­sion­al life­guard, dan­ger­ous waves and unpre­dictable swells aren’t the only dead­ly risks of the job.

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Conscious about sun protection

When your day revolves around patrolling the ocean and keep­ing beach­go­ers safe, there’s real­ly no avoid­ing sun expo­sure. And while Trent nev­er leaves the life­guard tow­er with­out lay­er­ing on the sun­screen and sun pro­tec­tive cloth­ing, he knew he could still be at risk of sun dam­age and skin cancer.

Patient Story Trent Falson 2 beach

A life in the sun can put you at a high­er risk of skin cancer

Born and raised in Bon­di, Trent has spent most of his life at the beach and start­ed surf­ing the waves of North Bon­di at the age of five. He joined the North Bon­di Surf Club as a 10-year-old nip­per, before mov­ing his way up the ranks to senior club, where he did patrols and trained as a spe­cial­ist board pad­dler at an elite nation­al lev­el.

Trent began serv­ing as a pro­fes­sion­al life­guard at Bon­di Beach in 1997 — long before he hit our TV screens on the pop­u­lar series Bon­di Res­cue. He worked as a Bon­di life­guard up until 2002, before tak­ing a 12-year hia­tus to explore oth­er career paths. But Bondi’s siren song called him back in 2014 and he’s con­tin­ued serv­ing as a life­guard ever since.

Patient Story Trent Falson 3 beach2

Those who work out­doors, like life­guards, face a high­er risk of devel­op­ing melanoma and oth­er skin can­cers. In fact, occu­pa­tion­al sun expo­sure is respon­si­ble for approx­i­mate­ly 34,000 cas­es of skin can­cer in Aus­tralia each year. This is why Trent knew how impor­tant it was to have his skin checked reg­u­lar­ly by a professional.

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A com­pre­hen­sive skin check is the best prevention

After a life­time under the harsh Aussie sun and long days spent pro­tect­ing Bon­di beach­go­ers, Trent decid­ed it was time to get proac­tive about his skin health and book in a Full Body MoleMap in April this year.

“Stay­ing sun safe and get­ting your skin checked isn’t just a sum­mer thing. It’s vital­ly impor­tant to stay on top of your skin health which is why I recent­ly got my skin checked at MoleMap” wrote Trent in an Insta­gram post after his appointment.

Patient Story Trent Falson 4 check

How Trent stays on top of his skin health year-round

Though the win­ter months bring a much slow­er pace to Bondi’s life­guard team, skin can­cer nev­er rests. Trent knows his risk of melanoma remains high year-round, even dur­ing the cool­er, cloudi­er win­ter days. That’s why he con­tin­ues to do self-checks at home every 3 months to mon­i­tor his skin for changes.

“It’s win­ter now, but being out in the sun all day still comes with its risks … The start of new sea­sons, like win­ter, is a pret­ty good time­ly reminder to check your skin because melanoma can devel­op at any time of the year,” Trent wrote in an Insta­gram post on June 1.

“After get­ting my skin checked with MoleMap a cou­ple months ago, it’s time for a self-check,” writes Trent, ​“If I notice any changes, the tele-der­ma­tol­o­gists at MoleMap will take anoth­er look.”

Patient Story Trent Falson 5 leg

“Liv­ing in Aus­tralia, we all spend a lot of time in the sun, which means it’s impor­tant to keep on eye on your skin and be aware of changes,” Trent wrote in a sep­a­rate Insta­gram post, ​“It’s pret­ty easy to do — as long as you have a mir­ror or loved one for those hard to see spots.”

Zinc-ing up to raise aware­ness for skin cancer

Dur­ing this year’s Nation­al Skin Can­cer Action Week (20−26 Novem­ber), Trent got involved in our Know Your Spots cam­paign and marked his skin spots with colour­ful zinc to help raise aware­ness for skin can­cer. Now, he’s keen to encour­age oth­ers to know their spots and get reg­u­lar skin checks.

“Changes in spots or your skin can be ear­ly warn­ing signs of skin can­cer. And since most skin can­cers are suc­cess­ful­ly treat­ed when caught ear­ly, it can be life­sav­ing to #KnowYourSpots! ” shared Trent in an Insta­gram post on Novem­ber 23.

Patient Story Trent Falson 6 Zinc

MoleMap Team

At MoleMap we check, detect and treat skin cancer. Find out how you can protect your skin at your nearest MoleMap skin cancer clinic.

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MoleMap specialises in skin cancer detection, diagnosis, proactive monitoring and treatment. Want the best protection against melanoma and other skin cancers? Get your skin and moles checked early and often at a MoleMap skin cancer clinic.