England cricketer Sam Billings reveals about his battle with skin cancer

England wicketkeeper Sam Billings revealed that he recently dealt with skin cancer and is now planning to create awareness about the same.

Billings informed about his situation on Twitter, writing, “Last October I had a bit of a reality check, two operations to remove skin cancer off my chest put cricket on the back burner for a little while and into perspective.” Have a look at the tweet here:

The 31-year-old cricketer, also spoke to the news outlet The Telegraph, said that he had undergone two operations last year to remove a melanoma from his chest.

“I had a melanoma that was 0.6mm (deep). The threshold of when it gets really serious is 0.7mm, so really close.”

“If I had left that screening to go to the meeting, and waited until my next one six months down the line it could have been far, far more serious. The margins are so small but can have massive consequences,” told the cricketer.

“It did give me the clarity of making decisions based on what I want to do rather than maybe just toeing the line and being seen to do the right thing.

“I have tried to do that over the years and it’s sometimes resulted in carrying drinks. You realise that cricket isn’t the be all and end all. It’s hugely important but you need to put things in perspective. It’s also made me much more empathetic,” he added.

The cricketer, who has played three Tests, 28 ODIs and 37 T20Is, also warned the cricketers of being in the sun for too long.

“I’m not just talking about the pro game. It’s club cricketers, people who watch the game. I played at Lord’s recently and the sun was out, even if it wasn’t 25 degrees. It might only have been 18 but you can still get sunburnt.

“We treat it (applying suncream) like a bit of a chore, because the education around it isn’t as good as in countries like Australia. I’d like to see everyone in cricket working together: the sun is out, so let’s protect ourselves,” said Billings.

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