A Sister Wife's Scare
- Reality star Janelle Brown from TLC’s hit series Sister Wives is on the mend from a common skin cancer diagnosis and reassures fans that she caught it and is doing fine.
- The 51-year-old has been on the show (that centers around Kody Brown, his four wives and their 18 children) since the unconventional series premiered in 2010, fifteen seasons ago and was happy to help raise awareness for skin cancer prevention. “I hope this share will be helpful to some. I am sharing to say that, even if it seems like it couldn't be skin cancer, it doesn't hurt to have your doctor look at it.”
- Top experts tell SurvivorNet the best ways to protect from the sun: Covering yourself with clothing on top of sunscreen. “In fact, a hat and SPF proof clothing should be your number one forms of sun protection.”
“Many of you have been noticing and reaching out to me about the blemish above my lip in the new episodes. I am posting this picture hopefully for awareness,” she writes on her Instagram page. “I started to see what looked like a scar develop in an area on my lip where all of my cold sores for the past two decades have erupted. At first I thought it was a new cold sore forming but then it never developed and just stayed.”
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An Unconventional Family
The family, who has been getting more divided over the years and are currently not all living on the same property, is made up of Kody’s other three wives, Meri, Christine and Robyn. The brood first graced the small screen in September 2010, shocking America with the real life portrayal of a polygamist family (a family with multiple husbands or wives), not typically understood in today’s society. At the time, Kody’s fourth wife Robyn had moved into the picture, his first “new wife” in 16 years. They shared separate living quarters and all came together mainly for family meals.
Kody and Meri are no longer legally married but have declared it a “spiritual marriage,” which is the status with the rest of the marriages.
"In plural marriage, I don't feel like I've got the right to say, 'This is over, this is ending,’" Kody told Us Weekly in a past interview, saying that there’s often a "double standard" in polygamous communities. "I feel like [my wives] need to understand that that they can leave. If it's not working for them, they can leave. Nobody's going to be a prisoner here,” he explained. (This is Janelle’s second husband, and she did not grow up into a polygamist environment.)
The show has encountered quite a bit of drama in its fifteen seasons, including Kody challenging Utah’s polygamy laws in 2011, suing the state of Utah but ultimately losing the lawsuit.
Kody said in a 2020 podcast that he doesn’t think any of his kids will continue with polygamy. "I really just don't expect any of my children to be in plural marriage," he said on Reality Life with Kate Casey. "But I don't know. That's up to them to decide."
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Protecting Yourself from the Sun
Basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancers, starts in the basal cells (a type of cell within that produces new skin cells as old ones die). Normally, this slow-growing type of cancer is easy to remove.
In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Dendy Engelman from MDCS Dermatology in New York shared the top five things you can do to avoid skin cancer:
- Avoid sun during peak hours, which is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Wear a wide brimmed hat and sunglasses, because we want to protect the tops of our head, and the tops of our ears, and then the delicate area around the eye.
- Wear SPF of 30 or higher a bare minimum of 30 and make sure to reapply every two hours, or after excessive sweating, or after swimming.
- Have yearly skin checks (with a professional), because it's difficult to evaluate areas all over the body.
- Avoid tanning beds. There is absolutely no benefit to going to a tanning bed, and it can really significantly increase your risk of melanoma, which is the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Top 5 Ways to Protect Your Skin From Skin Cancer
There are so many brands and types of sunscreen that it can be confusing to know what’s best for your skin. SPF levels vary from 5 or 8 up to 100 or higher. (SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor, which is a measure of how well a sunscreen will protect skin from UVB rays, which cause sunburn.)
“My recommendation is really focus on the ingredients rather than the brands,” Manhattan dermatologist Dr. Snehal Amin tells SurvivorNet. “If you like the way the brand feels on your skin, if you like the purpose of the brandfor instance, sport versus daily use or daytime use versus a short burst of activity useI think those are more important factors than actual brands.”
Children should have more careful protection. “When I’m using sunscreens on my younger kids, I recommend Neutrogena Free and Clear Stick, which is a zinc and titanium based sunscreen,” he says. “It doesn’t have chemical sunscreens. It’s a little greasier, but my kids tend not to mind that particular aspect of the sunscreen.”
Which Sunscreen Should I Choose To Prevent Cancer?
Although protecting yourself from the sun is a good start according to experts, sometimes it is not enough, as many people have likely had significant exposure while growing up and doing normal daily activities outside. And, like Brown, you may mistake skin cancer for a blister or pimple. The best way to make sure your skin is healthy is to go in for a routine checkup with a dermatologist, and of course always be on the lookout for any skin changes in between visits.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
