Wagga schools are being invited to take part in a day-long workshop organised by the Melanoma Insititute to educate students and teachers about the importance of sun safety. Photo: Melanoma Institute Australia.
Several high schools from across Wagga Wagga will be making their way to Notre Dame University next week to take part in the Melanoma Institute of Australia’s (MIA) SunSafe Student Ambassador Program.
Students will learn about the importance of sun safety through several workshops and from expert speakers. Australia has the highest melanoma rates in the world with one person being diagnosed with melanoma every 30 minutes and one person dying from the disease every six hours. It is the most common cancer affecting 20- to 39-year-old Australians.
MIA CEO Matthew Browne said the Sunsafe program was about empowering students with the critical sun-safe message and allowing them to educate their peers.
“Ninety-five per cent of melanomas are caused by overexposure to UV radiation, and we know that sunburn during childhood greatly increases your risk of developing melanoma as an adult,” Mr Browne said.
“Initiatives like this that reach a younger audience will not only benefit the teenagers themselves but hopefully will also ripple through to generations to come.”
During the day-long workshop, which is designed to meet Years 8 and 9 PDHPE curriculum learning outcomes, student representatives and their accompanying teachers will be trained on how to encourage change around sun-safe behaviours as well as the importance of sun safety itself.
They will then take these potentially lifesaving messages back to their schools and pitch them to their peers and teachers with the goal of changing risky sun behaviour.
The program, which was successfully piloted in Sydney in 2018, has now spread further afield and in addition to Wagga Wagga, has also been held in Perth and Hobart.
In addition to learning about the dangers of sun exposure, how to minimise their risk of developing melanoma and how to encourage changed behaviour in others, students will also develop their presentation skills through a workshop with studio director of Speaking Out Wagga and speech and drama teacher, Katie Riley. This will help them craft their personalised sun-safe pitch which they will then deliver to their peers at their school.
This year’s SunSafe Program comes as Australia focuses on melanoma and the dangers of tanning, with MIA’s co-medical directors, Professor Georgina Long AO and Professor Richard Scolyer AO, using their 2024 Australian of the Year acceptance speech to call for urgent community action to prevent melanoma.
“There is nothing healthy about a tan. Nothing. Our bronzed Aussie culture is actually killing us,” Professor Long said.
“So we call on advertisers, and social media influencers – to stop glamorising tanning or using it to sell or entertain. And our fellow Australians – when you see it, call it out, and demand change.
“Imagine the outcry if smoking was still glamourised like this; we must elevate sun safety to equal status as other lifesaving safety measures like seatbelts and helmets.”
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