Primary school awareness on skin cancer / melanoma launched

Primary school children in Jersey will learn more about how to play safely in the sun through an initiative being organised by the Donna Annand Melanoma Charity.

 The charity has secured the support of The Channel Islands Co-operative Society to deliver its ‘Play Safe in the Sun” training to primary schools in the island.

The Society’s Community Officer Tanya Dorrity and Pharmacy Locale Superintendent Pharmacist

Sara Kynicos have been working with the Donna Annand Melanoma Charity and will deliver their first training morning at St Peters Primary School this Thursday (25th  May) at 9 am. The charity’s mascot ‘Alan the Mole’ will also be making a star appearance to help deliver the training and awareness to the children.

‘To be in a position to extend our ‘Play Safe in the Sun’ programme and deliver sun safety training to primary schools is a great achievement for Donna’s charity,’ said Kerry Petulla, chairperson of the Donna Annand Melanoma Charity.

‘Our mission is to “raise awareness amongst young people” and over the years we have developed and delivered awareness programmes to almost all secondary schools in Jersey. To now be able to reach out to younger children and teach them how to play safely in the sun is absolutely fantastic. We could not achieve this without the support of The Co-operative and we are truly thankful and very much looking forward to working with them.’

Mrs Dorrity said that as a community retailer and provider of medical services, the Society was keen to do what it could to help protect islanders from the effect of the sun.

‘We are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place but that does mean we spend a lot of time outside and so it’s important that children understand why need to be careful. If we can teach them good habits from an early age then it becomes the norm for them,’ she said.

In addition to receiving the training from The Co-operative, all children will be provided with UV bands,, which helps enhance their awareness of the sun and reminds them when to apply sun screen, even on a cloudy day.

The Co-operative will also deliver the training at Les Landes Primary School on 14th  June 2017.