Real Housewives star Louise Wallace’s skin cancer warning for Kiwis

TV personality Louise Wallace has undergone surgery for a basal cell carcinoma - a type of skin cancer. Photo / Dean Purcell

Former Real Housewife of Auckland Louise Wallace opens up about her skin cancer scare.

Actor, veteran broadcaster and former Real Housewife Louise Wallace has a cautionary tale about the vital importance of wearing sunblock, after undergoing surgery for skin cancer.

In a candid chat with Spy, Wallace says: “Wear sunblock down to the lip line, even if it smudges your lipstick”.

This week, Wallace had a basal cell carcinoma removed from her upper lip, which she says is the best of a bad lot but if left, can develop into squamous cell, or even melanoma.

“I noticed some scaly skin above my lip about two years ago,” Wallace says.

“I did see a dermatologist about it and at that stage it was called a keratosis which is harmless but can develop into skin cancer, and that’s what’s happened to me.”

Wallace went on a family holiday at Christmas and noticed that her skin had got ‘quite angry’ and the scaly patch was spreading.

After her biopsy results, this week Wallace had Mohs Surgery, the gold-standard technique for the removal of most types of skin cancers.

“Thin layers of skin are removed one layer at a time until only cancer-free skin remains,” she says.

“It took three goes before mine was gone.”

The resulting wound, she says, looks like she has been shot above her lip.

TV personality Louise Wallace had Mohs surgery to remove skin cancer from her lip. Photo / Supplied

Wallace also needed a skin graft and says she was lucky she had a great surgeon who took skin from under her chin. She jokes that with any luck she’ll look trim, taut and terrific.

“There will be a scar, but my glory days are over so that’s a small price to pay.

“You never know, maybe there will be a TV drama needing a scar-faced senior in a skirt.”

Wallace, who has previously had basal cell carcinomas removed from the back of her arms, says she has been pretty sun conscious since her teens.

She hasn’t had her face or decolletage - low neckline - in the sun for more than 40 years.

“Apparently the lip line is quite prone to sunburn and when you think about it, even a floppy hat doesn’t cover your lower face, so it makes sense that area cops it,” she says.

“I’m still gob smacked at how people let themselves get burnt and all I can say is: Good luck, because it catches up with you in the end.

“I know quite a few people who have died of melanoma.”

Wallace’s father was a yachtsman and very fair skinned, so she says by the time he died he was covered in skin cancers, although he ultimately died from leukaemia.

“I aways look at yachties, cricketers, surfers and the like, and wonder how they stay out of skin cancer trouble.”

There’s regular discussion about skin cancer mortality and the fact more people die of it than on NZ roads, but the statistics that Wallace thinks are probably missed by most people, is how many deaths there are each year from skin cancer other than melanoma.

Sunsmart NZ estimates each year 90,000 non-melanoma skin cancers are diagnosed, with an estimated health care cost of $129.4 million.

“The bottom line is that both basal and squamous cell carcinomas can turn into melanoma,” she says.

Her stern advice is to wear sunblock, fake tan, avoid sitting out in the sun for any long periods and get a mole check every year.

Louise Wallace, pictured in the publicity shoot for Real Housewives of Auckland, in 2016.

While she recovers, Wallace is gearing up for her yearly production for Tadpole Productions in May, based at the Pump House Theatre in Takapuna. The company is now in its 12th year.

Wallace explains she only treads the boards every two years. This year she is producing the hilarious play My Brilliant Divorce, starring the wonderful Jackie Clarke.

“We have an incredibly loyal audience base at Tadpole and have been privileged to employ some of NZ’s finest professional actors and production crew.”

Meanwhile, Wallace, who worked at TV3 from its inception on shows like 60 Minutes, Nightline and 3 News, has some tough words for current NZ media bosses.

“The state of media in this country is at the biggest cross-roads in my lifetime. I feel incredibly sad about Newshub,” she says.

“I was a founding member of TV3 35 years ago, so [the potential closure of Newshub] is personal for me.

“I’m glad I won’t be in NZ for the final news broadcast because I’d just have a damn good cry.”

Wallace says the absolute joy in her life these days is being a grandmother. Her daughter Ashley is a journalist based in Canberra, and mum to baby Marnie, the first grandchild for Wallace and husband Scott.

The new grandparents visit them regularly.

It’s been eight years since Wallace joined the line-up on the Real Housewives of Auckland and she says she only catches up with one of the cast regularly and it’s not her Paritai Drive neighbour, Gilda Kirkpatrick.

“The only Housewife I catch up with on a regular basis is Anne Batley Burton, who I regard as one of my closest friends.”