Deborah Hutton On Surviving Cancer {Twice}, The Importance Of Hats And The Beauty Of Ageing
When you get a skin cancer diagnosis, have surgery and survive, you consider yourself very lucky. When it strikes again, nine years later, you might find yourself panicking. But media personality Deborah Hutton wasn’t thinking about her mortality when lightning struck for the second time. She was just wondering how the surgeon was going to remove a cancer that was in exactly the same place as the first.
“There was this moment of, ‘Oh no!’ I was like, ‘Holy shit, what are they going to take now?’ The original surgery took half of a thumb size [amount] out of my lip, and I thought, ‘Oh fuck, not in the same spot.’”
For me, Deborah is still the perfectly groomed girl from the 1980s, with her big bouncy hair and her head cocked in a come hither way on the cover of Cosmopolitan (alongside a coverline that screamed “fetishes”). So, although she is hardly filthy mouthed, it was a surprise to discover she occasionally swears; she is also much more than a mannequin.
Of course, since those early days, 59-year-old Deborah has had a lifetime of experience: hosting TV shows, editing, being an entrepreneur and numerous brand ambassadorships. She’s had some presumably challenging times in relationships; one ex was convicted of a staged break-in at her home (Hutton both accepted his apologies and supported him pursuing mental health treatment). She’s lived large, so far, and perhaps that made it easier to see cancer as just another hurdle to jump. Or maybe it was because she didn’t realise how bad it might be.
When she woke up from this most recent surgery, to remove two basal cell carcinomas (as opposed to melanomas) from her face, her doctor said, “Don’t buy a lottery ticket today – you’ve just won the lottery.”
“I didn’t really understand it,” she explains, “But had I left it, I don’t know what would have happened. That amplified the seriousness of it. When I heard that, I was like, ‘OK, this is serious shit, and I treat it as such now.”
Since her initial diagnosis, nine years ago, she’d been careful about sun protection, wearing sunscreen and hats. What she didn’t know was that all hats aren’t created equal, and because of that she’s launched a headwear line of her own, together with family-owned company Rigon, called Canopy Bay.
UV rays can penetrate some fabrics so these hats are made from sun-protective material. They are also collapsible, rainproof and washable.
“I was shocked when I found out there was this particular material that blocked UV rays. I thought, ‘Why don’t more people know about this?’”
After her surgery, Deborah posted a photo of the stitches on her face, and the wide wound that stretched from under her nose to her chin. “It went viral and got picked up in the news – it had a massive reach. It was out of that that I thought I can give this purpose.”
“ “But had I left it, I don’t know what would have happened. That amplified the seriousness of it. When I heard that, I was like, ‘OK, this is serious shit, and I treat it as such now.””
There was a moment when she wondered if her facial scarring would end her career. But her it healed, and she’s long since come to terms with the changes that ageing has brought.
“I can’t lie – sometimes it’s a challenge looking at myself, but I go, ‘OK, that’s where we’re going.’ I’m not into injectables. I want to age gracefully, although it would be nice to tighten it up. There’s a beauty in ageing.
“I live a really healthy existence, and I want to embrace the beauty of what that feels like, rather than what that looks like. And there’s really beauty in being this age. I don’t have to answer to anyone, or care what people think.”
Despite the drama of a cancer diagnosis, Deborah didn’t really need a wake-up call. “I’ve always lived my life with that saying, ‘Live each day as if it’s your last because one day you’ll be right.’ I wake up with that feeling of, ‘The glass is half full, how am I going to fill the rest?’”
With a significant birthday at the end of this year, she says, “I want to fill my life with things I want to do. It’s funny turning 60. Mum is 84, so I can see there’s an end point.
“How do I want to live the next 25 years of my life? I want to make choices for my future in a very truthful way. I’ve lived my life trying to be a people pleaser, and it’s time for me to do more stuff for myself.
“I’m not always in a rush and am far less stressed than I’ve ever been. I want to take a deep breath and spend more time with people who mean the most to me.
“I want to have a calmer, more peaceful, happier life where I can breathe, walk, get a dog and just live really, really well and live to what makes my heart sing.”
Is she someone who looks backwards, who has regrets?
“Some of the things that have happened to me have been where the greatest learnings come from. I never want to look back at my life and regret one thing – and I don’t because it’s your path. You were obviously meant to do something, say yes to something, be with a person.
“We may look back and go, ‘Jesus, did I really have to go through that?’ And then you come out the other end and go, ‘Yeah, you did,’ because you learnt this about yourself, you learnt this about others.
“What’s the point of regret? There’s a beauty in learning, making mistakes and coming out the other end stronger and more in touch with yourself.”
Canopy Bay by Deborah Hutton is available at canopybay.com.au and in selected retail stores, from $95-$195.