Rural ‘safety in the sun’ campaign launched

A new alliance has been forged in a bid to help raise awareness across Northern Ireland’s rural communities about the hazards of not taking protection while working in the sun.

The Ulster Cancer Foundation (UCF), The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) and Gordons Chemists have unveiled their joint Care in the Sun Campaign, targeting those who work outdoors, where levels of dangerous UV radiation can be up to 400% greater than normal levels experienced by office workers.

The joint Care in the Sun Campaign is launched to mark Sun Awareness Week on May 8 to May 14. To help the campaign generate momentum, Gordons Chemists and the Ulster Cancer Foundation will be taking the sun protection message into the heart of the rural community by running a skin analysis and general health clinic at the largest agricultural event in Northern Ireland, the Balmoral Show on May 10 to 12.

Mr Kenneth Sharkey, the new President of The Ulster Farmers’ Union, added his organisation’s support to this lifesaving campaign: “We will be endorsing the importance of covering up in the sun when working outdoors to our 12,000 members across Northern Ireland. We grew concerned at the possibility of a trebling of malignant melanoma rates in Northern Ireland over the next 30 years and saw this opportunity to educate our members and regional communities across NI about skin cancer as a positive step in the right direction.”

Sandra Gordon Melanoma Strategy Co-ordinator, UCF said: “The skin analysis test is non-diagnostic but does show clearly, through enhancing the deeper non-visible layers of the skin, damage caused by overexposure to the sun. This allows us to alert outdoor workers of the serious and disfiguring results that working outside over a long period of time without sun protection can cause.

She added: “In order to stop the increasing trend of skin cancers in Northern Ireland, it is important that individuals, particularly fair skinned people, those with lots of freckles or moles, with a family history of skin cancer, who have had a previous skin cancer and people who work outdoors for long periods take measures to avoid burning. This includes wearing protective clothing such as loose fitting shirts, hats and applying liberal sun protection creams.”

Helena Buchanan, Head of Health Promotion at Gordons Chemists is looking forward to seeing this campaign save lives across Northern Ireland.

She said: “Through early detection we hope to save lives across Northern Ireland’s rural communities. At this year’s Balmoral show we aim to analyse 5,000 people’s skin each day and plan to have the revolutionary skin analysis machine tour all of our 44 stores during the summer. Even if only one person is detected as a result of this campaign it will have been hugely successful and worthwhile.”

The incidence of skin cancers continue to rise in Northern Ireland, particularly malignant melanoma, with around 185 cases of this aggressive cancer diagnosed each year.

(SP)