Gov. Larry Hogan has basal and squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, he announced Thursday. He emphasized that it is both minor and treatable.
He plans to get cancerous cells removed from his face and just below his breastbone at his dermatologist’s office on Saturday and be back at work on Monday, he said.
Hogan was upbeat as he announced the news at a press conference. He said the cancer is probably the result of sun damage from the six years he spent lifeguarding at a Hilton hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida.
“Wanted to look good with a dark tan, so I never put sunscreen on,” he said. “So my advice to everybody out there listening is to please pay attention when they tell you to use sunscreen. I was not smart enough to follow that advice, but we’re going to certainly be doing that in the future, and I think I’m going to be passing out little tubes of 50 SPF to everybody I can find.”
The new cancer is unrelated to the far more serious non-Hodgkins lymphoma, for which he received treatment in 2015 and 2016. He said that cancer has not returned.