But more recently another well-known slogan, that also starts with the letter "S", has come into much sharper focus.

After undergoing cancer treatment for melanoma for the last two years, he wants everyone to remember to Slip! Slop! Slap! and keep up with regular skin checks.

"If you are working outside, and our job is the ultimate example of being outside seven days a week, you should have a skin check every 12 months," he said.

"It's not hard, its not invasive, it's not expensive - and it's just so easy."

Mr Robson said he'd always been skin cancer conscious - "religiously" carrying out regular checks, after surgeons cut a melanoma from his arm in 2014.

In January 2021, he celebrated his 60th birthday - but less than two months later, he was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma.

"But literally, six weeks after my 60th birthday, I found a lump in my underarm," he said.

"I was just lying in bed one day, and thought 'ah s**t, I had better get up, so I scratched my underarm and thought 'where did this cricket ball come from?'," he said.

"By the time I underwent all the tests, they found I had multiple cancers in the liver, in the lungs, the chest and the lymph glands."

He said he'd worked outdoors most of his life, first in Bendigo and then at Kyneton "I'd never had a sick day in 30 years.

"If the cancer was on my ears, or the back of my neck, or my back, I would have never have seen it - I was probably really lucky that I saw it there," he said.

Mr Robson took part in the CHARLI clinical trial, using a treatment that had been prescribed for prostate and breast cancer, but not melanoma.

Mr Robson said he was fortunate he was able to receive treatment in Bendigo, under oncologist Dr Sam Harris.

"I hate Melbourne, if I had to go to Elizabeth Street (the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre), I would have to take the Melway," he said.

"In Bendigo, I found all the nurses were country kids, and they were sensational.

"When we sat down and had the discussion on day one, basically I had cancer in 11 or 12 spots, so it was obviously inoperable - too late for chemo, too late for radiation," he said.

Mr Robson said Dr Harris suggested the CHARLI trial, although he warned it carried significant side effects.

"He was very upfront about it, which was quite comforting," Mr Robson said.

Mr Robson now has scans every three months.

"There is always something, but at the end of the day, the treatment does seem to be working," he said.

"It doesn't mean the cancer isn't floating around now, they just keep saying to me the longer we can go, without getting any new ones, the better the chances are."

National Centre for Farmer Health, Hamilton, AgriSafe Clinician Jeanne Van Der Geest Dekker said those living and working on the land were embracing the message about the dangers of exposure to the sun.

She said skin care education was part of the 90 minute comprehensive health assessments, offered by the centre.

"When you are sitting on the tractor, or sitting in the ute, there is that compounded impact of UV rays through the windscreen - so you need to think about covering your arms, protecting your hands, and wearing a hat with a brim, not a peaked cap," she said.

"The message is coming through, but sometimes not well received until there is a lived experience, or in someone close to the farmer's family."

Ms Van Der Geest Dekker agreed routine skin checks were vital, especially through a specialised clinic.

"Melanomas can grow in awkward spaces, like an armpit, or in between the webbing of your fingers and feet, under the nailbed of of your fingers and toes and discrete areas, where sun is not likely to reach," she said.

Checks were also very important where there was a family history of cancer - "it can play a big part," she said.