May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month. Are you aware? I am, as I look at my husband's left hand, fresh out of surgery to remove a squamous cell cancer, in all of its stitched and bandaged glory. I am aware when I look at my pale, pale skin and attempt to cover up as much as possible before heading out into the blazing Florida sun. I am aware when I lather my blond-headed little boys with sunscreen, hide in the shade at my neighborhood pool, and think back to all the skin cancer-y spots my grandma was forever having frozen off her her aging body. I've had a few frozen myself. And my sister just last year had two basal cell cancers carved right out of her chest. Her scars are constant reminders of summers spent basking on the beach.

Skin cancer should not be taken lightly, no matter how strongly you believe the disease won't happen to you. Of all the cancers out there, you might think this one is no big deal. You'd be wrong. Just ask Miss Melanoma who lost a toe because a mole on her foot turned up as melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Ask anyone battling the disease and fighting off death. There were an estimated 59,940 new melanoma cases in the U.S. in 2007 and 250,000 cases of squamous cells carcinomas, the second most common type of skin cancer. Basal cell cancer, the most common form, strikes one million people each year.

Skin cancer should alarm you. Because if left undetected, it can kill you. Awareness is key. So do you part this month. And every month. Inform yourself. Your family. Your friends. All the information you need -- how to prevent it, how to detect it, how to treat it -- can be found right here at The Skin Cancer Foundation.

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Need another reason to stay out of the sun? Here' s one: it might prevent you from exercising. This may be good news for those looking for any reason to avoid physical activity (note: this is an extremely unhealthy reason). But for those committed to huffing and puffing, sun bathing should be stricken from your to-do list.

My sister is about to have a second basal cell skin cancer surgically removed from her chest. The first came off a few weeks ago. The whole process was painful, uncomfortable, and a little scary too. The discomfort went away, though, and she is feeling fine. What troubles her now is the fact that she can't exercise. It would cause too much trauma to the surgery site and could compromise the effectiveness of her stitches. Sweat is not such a good thing for healing wounds either.

It's been a few weeks since the first surgery, and now my sister is headed for more. Had her cancer appeared in only one spot, she'd be just about set to hit the treadmill and pump some iron. But skin cancer doesn't allow for such tidy plans. It's unpredictable and unforgiving. And it's a sure exercise stopper. Need I say more?

Just a few weeks ago, first lady Laura Bush had a cancerous lesion removed from her right shin. It was found to be the second most common form of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma. When asked why she didn't say anything about it sooner, she answered simply "It's no big deal and we knew it was no big deal at the time." The lesion was about the size of a nickel, and the whole subject came up finally when somebody asked why she was wearing a bandage on her leg at a Hanukah ceremony recently.

As for her "no big deal" comment: squamous cell carcinomas are responsible for less than 0.1 percent of cancer deaths, but they are also more likely to spread to other areas of the body than basal cell (the most common form of skin cancer) and do require more follow-up monitoring.

There also seems to be some debate on whether or not she should have made the issue public sooner, and I have to side with her on this one. Getting a diagnosis of cancer is scary (whether she admits it or not), and since she's not personally an elected official (and so isn't required to disclose the same way the President is) I can't blame her for wanting to keep this to herself and close family -- at least until she knew what she was dealing with.

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