Major’s Hill Park now has free public sunscreen dispensers to help fight skin cancer by making the UV protection cream more accessible.
The initiative is part of Save Your Skin Foundation’s (SYSF) 40 free public sunscreen dispensers across Canada. The pilot project enters its third year of implementation. It is in partnership between the National Capital Commission (NCC) and SYSF, said the foundation in a news release on Friday.
“At the NCC, we love when people who live in or visit the National Capital Region spend time in our beautiful parks and recreation spaces,” said Tobi Nussbaum, CEO of the NCC. “Our partnership with the Save Your Skin Foundation to provide access to free sunscreen in Major’s Hill Park is one of many ways we are working, every day, to make those spaces accessible and enjoyable for everyone.”
The campaign is meant to raise awareness and shed light on the available measures to avoid skin cancers. It is also meant to help families and individuals facing economic challenges.
“Skin cancer is largely preventable, but not everyone has access to sunscreen,” said Kathy Barnard, stage four melanoma survivor and founder of SYSF. “In the third year of this pilot, it was important to us that we ensured we were getting sunscreen to marginalized communities where people may not have access to it.”
The automatic and touchless dispensers are approved by Health Canada. They contain “SPF 30 mineral sunscreen, which is a zinc oxide-based sunscreen, free from chemical sunscreen filters, common allergens and toxic ingredients including oxybenzone, avobenzone, retinyl palminate, PEG, parfume, and sodium lauryl sulphate,” reads the release.
The City of Ottawa was one of 60 cities in five provinces across the country to bring awareness to the preventable disease through the “Melanoma and Skin Cancer Awareness Month” in May.
To protect your skin, apply sunscreen before exposing your skin to the sun, and limit your time in the direct sunlight, especially between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
More than 80,000 Canadians were diagnosed with skin cancer in 2022.
“8,700 of these were new melanoma cases. Over 1,300 lost their lives to melanoma,” reads the release.
SYSF is a national, patient-led non-profit dedicated to the fight against melanoma, non-melanoma skin cancer and ocular melanoma.
The complete list of locations can be found here.