This year students at 130 Edmonton schools will watch a video called Mission UV as their teachers and perhaps a volunteer medical student from the University of Alberta teach them about the dangers of exposure to ultraviolet rays.
Some of the funds that produced that video as well as the accompanying materials that organizers hope eventually will be delivered to every elementary student across Canada, started with a golf tournament hosted by the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation and held at the Sturgeon Valley Golf Club. This June, as it has nearly every year since Jeremy Richardson died November 5, 2005 of melanoma, the tournament raised $40,000.
“All of the money that is raised goes towards awareness because skin cancer is preventable. Also awareness means early diagnosis, because like most cancers, if it is detected early there is a better survival rate,” said Jeremy’s father, Mitch Richardson, who serves on the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation.
Jeremy, an Ecole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite D’Youville graduate, was a promising athlete, a high-scoring forward for the St. Albert Saints. In 2003 he was named the team’s co-MVP and that year in the playoffs scored 16 goals and earned 26 points.
But he couldn’t beat skin cancer.
Since his death, the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation has been able to expand its fundraising mandate and its awareness campaign, which now extends well beyond Edmonton/St. Albert borders.
As more funds were raised, the foundation, started by Dr. Barry Lycka in 2001, was able to hire Leona Yez as its executive director and fundraising co-ordinator.
“With her help we were able to get a partnership with L’Oreal Paris and Ombrelle,” Richardson said.
For every hit on its website, L’Oreal promised to donate $1 to the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation.
“That brought in $35,000,” and with the partnership we were able to develop the Mission UV video,” said Leona Yez.
In addition the Foundation was given a $50,000 grant from the Alberta Government’s Community Initiatives Program and has earned money through the Lottery Foundation as well. All of it goes to educating the public.
According to Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation statistics, melanoma diagnoses now exceed the combined total for lung, breast and prostate cancers. It is the most common cancer in young adults aged 20 to 30.
Those statistics sadden and frustrate Mitch Richardson because he wants more. He wants people to protect themselves so this lethal disease does not develop. He also wants enough funds for research, so that skin cancer can be cured.
“We’re doing better and the partnership with L’Oreal will add to awareness. But we need research, too. And for that we need something big, maybe like a moniker, to raise awareness all across the country,” he said.
