The Road to Healthy Skin Tour van, seen here on a visit to Santa Monica, CA, provides free skin-cancer screenings.
We were very happy to get a clean bill of skin health last week from dermatologist Lisa Chipps, M.D., who was volunteering her time at the Road to Healthy Skin Tour during one of the van’s Santa Monica, CA, stops. But a lot of other Americans aren’t so lucky — one in five of us will develop some form of skin cancer. That means 2 million cases a year, of which approximately 123,590 will be melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer and potentially deadly if not caught early. Caught late, melanoma’s survival rate drops to 15 percent.
The Skin Cancer Foundation, in conjunction with partners Aveeno and Rite Aid, sends the now-four-year-old Healthy Skin Tour van out on the road seven months of the year to visit 80 U.S. cities in 24 states. Not surprisingly, California and Florida — both sunshine states — produce the most skin-cancer diagnoses. (Because the van is a customized 38-foot RV, it doesn’t make the trip to the other big year-round beach state, Hawaii.)
The screening itself, which is entirely free, takes only about six minutes, but in total we waited about 45 minutes to see Dr. Chipps. There’s plenty to do while you’re standing in line (under a shade canopy, natch): You need to fill out a screening questionnaire concerning previous sun exposure, Aveeno provides free samples of its sunblock, and Columbia and SunGard display sun-protective clothing and window film, respectively. (We were delighted to discover Aveeno has a new Natural Protection collection that uses only the minerals titanium dioxide and zinc oxide as UVA/UVB sunscreens. At only $9.99 for 3 ounces, we love this gentle formula for daily use under makeup.)
To see if the van is coming to your neighborhood, visit the Skin Cancer Foundation’s website. The 2011 tour ends in September in New Orleans. In case you have any doubts about the value of screening, check out the running tally on the website of probable cancers found. To date, this year’s effort has turned up 29 likely melanomas. If you’ve already missed the tour this year, you can still get tips on self-examination from the foundation’s site.
Do you worry about skin cancer enough to check yourself regularly for it?
