When there are grey skies, dull and misty days, chilly breezes and frost on the pavements and cars in a morning, it's hard to focus the mind on the dangers of exposure to the sun's rays. That's something to think about during the hot summer months, which is the period when health authorities usually wage their campaigns warning about the links between unprotected sunbathing and skin cancer.

Even in winter, though, people take holidays in hot places and enjoy the sunshine. And at home, despite the lower temperatures, the sun can cause damage to sensitive skin.

But even if every precaution is taken through wearing sun hats and slapping on a high-factor sunblock, there is always a danger that damage done many years ago, perhaps in childhood, could erupt into a malignant mole.

That's what happened to Linda Gardner, the 57-year-old Woodside woman who understands from painful first-hand experience the downside of sunshine. Mrs Gardner says she has never been one for sitting in the sun, but she has had to have three operations to remove a skin cancer from her ankle.

Her campaign to raise awareness of the danger posed by the sun, and at the time raise funds for the Bradford, Airedale and Wharfedale Skin Cancer Charity Trust, is a sensible initiative. It's important that people take note of its message and do as much as they can to protect themselves and their children from a potentially fatal disease which affects about 60 people a year in the Bradford district.