Supermodel Christie Brinkley bared all Wednesday — in her face, that is — announcing her skin cancer diagnosis in a graphic Instagram post that doubled as a PSA.
“The good news for me is we caught the basal cell carcinoma early. And I had great doctors that removed the cancer and stitched me up to perfection like a haute couture Dior,” the 70-year-old beauty wrote. “The good news for you is that all of this can be avoided by being diligent with your sun protection! I got serious a bit late, so now for this ole mermaid/gardener, I’ll be slathering on my SPF 30, reapplying as needed, wearing long sleeves and a wide brim hat.”
The cancer was discovered by chance as she was accompanying one of her daughters to a doctor’s appointment, Brinkley marveled.
“The doctor was looking at each freckle with a magnifying glass,” she wrote. “It wasn’t my appointment so I wasn’t going to say anything, but at the VERY end I asked if he could just look at a little tiny dot I could feel as I applied my foundation. He took a look and knew immediately it needed a biopsy! He did it then and there!”
The rest is told in her photos, starting with the “after,” which is an image of the bandaged-up left side of her forehead. Photo two comes with an Instagram warning about graphic content, and reveals a gaping hole where the doctor had dug out the basal cell carcinoma. A snap of the stitched-up wound concludes the slideshow.
Brinkley urged followers to “make your own good luck” by getting screened regularly, and thanked her team of doctors.
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer and one of the most treatable, with about 3.6 million cases occurring annually, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. It starts in the basal cells, which produce new skin cells to replace old ones as they die off, the Mayo Clinic explains.
Long-term exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays is thought to be the main culprit, though experts warn that anyone can get skin cancer.
Brinkley preached prevention with her parting words: “Slather up, my friends!”
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