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Thank you for writing about this Bridget.Kate Neale is telling her compelling story…Video, Globe and MailToronto SunTORONTO – A 22-year-old Ontario woman battling deadly skin cancer is the face of a new push to ban youth from using indoor tanning beds.
“I had truly believed what I had been taught by the industry that tanning prevented cancers, and that the industry had the documents and scientists and even some dermatologists to back up these claims,” Kate Neale said. “Instead, it seems I’d had a death wish.”
NDP MPP France Gelinas introduced a private member’s bill Thursday that would ban tanning salon use by youth under the age of 18.
Gelinas said salons are targeting young people with promotions tied to teenager events like proms and graduations.
The tanning industry will tell customers that it’s healthier than sitting in the sun, that it boosts Vitamin D and that a base tan will protect against cancer, Gelinas said.
“All of those claims are false,” she said. “There is no safe tan.”
Martin Kabat, CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society in Ontario, said the rate of melanoma in the young is rising at the same time as teenagers are increasingly using indoor tanning beds.
“A new survey commissioned by the Society in early April, conducted among school children between the ages of 12 and 17, revealed that as many as 11% of students in Grade 11, and 21% of those in grade 12 are now going to indoor tanning salons,” he said. “This is a behaviour that is crying out to be controlled.”
Neale, who has fair skin that burns in the sun, began tanning heavily at age 16 in her hometown of Belleville and went on to work at a salon where she was required to retain a deep golden glow.
Last April, after a move to Ottawa, doctors discovered that a freckle on her stomach was melanoma.
“Today, I have a six-inch scar on my stomach and I live with so much fear. I’m currently waiting for the results of another biopsy. I always have new spots appearing and changing,” she said. “I’ll never forget the moment I walked into the plastic surgeon’s office with my mother and he… thought she was the patient.”
Neale said she first began tanning because it made her feel skinnier and prettier, but now she realizes that it is an addiction – tanorexia – that lights up the same parts of the brain as drugs and alcohol.
Steve Gilroy, executive direction of the Joint Canadian Tanning Association, said professional salons already adhere to voluntary standards which include parental consent for clients under the age of 18, mandatory protective eyewear and barring customers with the fairest skin.
Gilroy said the risk of cancer from tanning in a professional salon falls into the same category as sunlight and birth control pills.
Health Minister Deb Matthews said young people should not be using tanning beds but has yet to decide if a legislated ban is the appropriate course of action.http://www.torontosun.com/2012/04/26/cancer-patient-on-tanning-it-seems-i-had-a-death-wish
——————————————————————————
Canadian Cancer Society.
Exposing the secret lives of tanning teens in Ontario: Ipsos Reid poll results have Canadian Cancer Society renewing call for ban on indoor tanning for youth under 18
26 April 2012
TORONTO –A rare snapshot of teen behaviour was released today by the Canadian Cancer Society. The poll sheds light on why Ontario teens tan, how often, and the reasons they start using indoor tanning equipment.
Indoor tanning causes skin cancer. In 2009, the world’s foremost authority in identifying the causes of cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, classified ultraviolet radiation devices, including tanning beds, as known carcinogens. The Society has taken up the issue of youth tanning, because tanning bed use before the age of 35 increases a person’s risk of developing skin cancer by 75%. Melanoma skin cancer is also one of the most common and deadliest forms of cancer amongst people ages 15 to 29, and is one of the most preventable.
“The Canadian Cancer Society has been advocating on this important issue for more than six years,” says Joanne Di Nardo, the Society’s Public Issues Senior Manager. “The results of our poll further strengthen the need for the Government of Ontario to support France Gélinas’ new Private Members’ bill that restricts youth under 18 year of age from using indoor tanning equipment."
The poll conducted by Ipsos Reid investigated tanning behaviours of Ontario youth ages 12 to 17.
Key findings:
- 52% of youth indoor tanners say that their parents pay for their tanning bed use
- 24% of youth indoor tanners say that parents first introduced them to tanning
- 21% of youth in grade 12 are using tanning beds
- 11% of youth in grade 11 are using tanning beds
- 8% (1 in 10) youth in Ontario are using a tanning bed, up from 5% six years ago
Meet Kate, 21 year old melanoma cancer survivor
As a teenager growing up in Belleville, Kate Neale wanted to be tanned. Against the wishes of her parents and regardless of the fact that she had very light and sunburn-prone skin, Kate started indoor tanning at age 16. In the beginning, she tanned two to three times a week but soon ended up going for 12 to 16 minutes in the highest UVB pressured bed (double strength) sessions up to 16 times per month. The recommended maximum tanning time on this particular bed was 12 minutes (there was a sticker on the bed that stated this), however the salon allowed customers to tan in this bed for up to 30 minutes.
After graduating high school, Kate applied for a job at a tanning salon. She signed a contract saying that in return for maintaining a tanned appearance she would receive 12 free indoor tanning sessions and one spray tan per month. She worked in the salon for two and half years and studied Marketing at Loyalist College in Belleville before heading to Ottawa to work as an office administrator.
In May 2011, while visiting her parents, Kate’s mother noticed that a freckle on her daughter’s stomach had changed. A visit to a dermatologist and a biopsy later, confirmed that the freckle was actually melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Over the next few weeks, Kate underwent three more biopsies for skin lesions on her right breast, leg and arms.
“I’ll never forget going to the surgeon’s office with my mom — he thought she was the patient. When he realized that I was the patient, he told me I was the youngest person he’d ever treated for melanoma. I’m only 21,” says Kate. “Fortunately my cancer was found at an early-stage (Clarks Stage 2), when it was non-invasive. Today, I have a six-inch scar on my stomach and live with so much fear.”
Despite her experience, Kate says she’s still addicted to maintaining a tanned appearance but now uses self-tanning lotion or spray tanning. Her battle with skin cancer is not over. Frequently new spots appear on her skin and she says they are always changing. Currently, Kate is waiting for the results of another biopsy, which left her with 22 stitches on her left breast, and a total of 8 spots have been removed since June, one being pre-cancerous. Repeated doctor’s visits and the stress and anxiety of the situation have taken their toll on her academic and work career. This January, Kate left Ottawa and headed back to live with her parents.
Recently, Kate started volunteering with the Canadian Cancer Society, spending her time educating local teenagers about the dangers of indoor tanning and encouraging them to host a Tan-Free Prom this spring. She’s also become vocal about the need for regulation of the indoor tanning industry.
“If politicians need a reason to take action on this issue, they should just take a look at my story to see how tanning at a young age has impacted my life,” says Kate.
On April 26, Kate will be among more than 80 Canadian Cancer Society volunteers and staff from across the province who will gather at Queens Park to discuss the Society’s policy recommendations on indoor tanning which include:
- Prohibiting youth under the age of 18 from using indoor tanning equipment
- Restricting indoor tanning promotions and marketing targeted to youth
- Maintaining a registry or licensing system for indoor tanning equipment in use in Ontario with fees put towards enforcement
- Introducing mandatory and comprehensive training that is specific to Ontario for all staff operating indoor tanning equipment. Training would include operation procedures, maintenance and how to identify people with fair skin who are at greater risk of developing cancer.
- Ensuring the health risks associated with ultraviolet radiation (UVR) emitting devices are displayed prominently and in clear view of clients at all indoor tanning facilities
Legislative action needed now
Diseases such as cancer are taking a significant toll on an already strained healthcare system. Skin cancer is mostly preventable and is often treated by a dermatologist or a family doctor with costs billed to OHIP. In 2011, Cancer Care Ontario estimated the cost of skin cancer in province would exceed $344 million[i]. In 2011, it was estimated that 5,500 Canadians were diagnosed with melanoma and 74,100 with non-melanoma skin cancer[ii].
“Enacting legislation to prevent skin cancer should be a no-brainer for all political parties because it provides an opportunity for substantial healthcare cost reduction,” says Joanne Di Nardo. “Also, fees collected by a licensing or registry would off-set the costs of an effective enforcement strategy.”
Ontario needs to join other jurisdictions such as France, California, Australia, United Kingdom, Nova Scotia and British Columbia in taking proactive steps to address this pressing cancer prevention issue.
"With thousands of letters and postcards from youth asking for this legislation and an industry which cannot be trusted to self-regulate, it's time for the government to step in,” says France Gélinas, MPP, Nickel Belt and NDP Health Critic. “This is a commonsense solution to the increasing rates of skin cancer among youth and young adults; it won't cost the government anything and it will help prevent the multiple costs associated with a lifetime of cancer-related care for people and the government."
About the poll
The Ipsos Reid poll was conducted in April, 2012, on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Ontario Division. For this survey, a sample of 1,476 students in grades 7-12, aged 12 to 17, from Ipsos' Canadian online panel was interviewed online. Gender was split 50/50, census data provided regional weights and each grade level was given equal weight. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had the entire population of students in Ontario in grade 7 to 12, aged 12 to 17, been polled.
[i] Cancer Care Ontario. Cancer Fact: Cost of skin cancer in Ontario will exceed $344 million in 2011. June 2011. Available at http://www.cancercare.on.ca/cancerfacts/
[ii] Canadian Cancer Society’s Steering Committee on Cancer Statistics, Canadian Cancer Statistics 2011. Toronto, ON: Canadian Cancer Society; 2011.
The Canadian Cancer Society is a national community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is the eradication of cancer and the enhancement of the quality of life of people living with cancer. When you want to know more about cancer, visit our website http://www.cancer.ca or call our toll-free, bilingual Cancer Information Service at 1 888 939-3333.
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Sr. Coordinator, Media Relations
Ontario Division
Phone: (416) 488-5402 x2305
——————————————————————————————————-
This last article is about a young stage three mom who wasted years trying to have an itchy mole removed (a known warning sign) and shows why associating skin cancer with young people is vitally important.
Young mom falls through cracks of medical system
By Natalie North – Saanich News
Published: June 01, 2012 11:00 AM
Updated: June 06, 2012 1:52 PM
Three-year-old Lucas Wolf lies on a couch next to his mother Julia in their Saanich home. Julia spent years trying to have a skin blemished diagnosed, but learned too late that she has an aggressive and possibly fatal form of skin cancer.Don Denton/News staffJulia Wolf’s eyes focused on the melanoma poster fixed to the examination room door. The 19-year-old thought there was a chance the freckle on her leg might be one of the “less dangerous” forms of skin cancer.
Wolf told the walk-in clinic doctor her freckle had certain signs of cancer. It itched and changed shape over time.
He laughed and told her she was too young for that.
“He basically made me feel like an idiot for even asking,” said Wolf, now 28 and diagnosed with Stage 3 metastatic melanoma. “Yeah I was 19, but it turns out you’re not too young at the age of 19.
“If he had sent me to a dermatologist or looked into it, I could have caught it early on, but he just didn’t take it seriously.”
While the spot grew and changed, Wolf sought more medical help, but like that first encounter, she continued to hear the same message: she was too young to have skin cancer – she was healthy. Seven doctors later, she had little more than diagnoses of dry skin, a wart and hypochondria.
Years after that first clinic visit, another doctor suggested Wolf’s daily waves of nausea were allergic reactions to work.
“He was really rude and I felt embarrassed. It’s all because I was young and it pisses me off because it’s my life. I expected somebody to give a damn and nobody did. Everybody can go on their merry way and I’m dying.”
In October 2008 when she was pregnant with her son Lucas, Wolf demanded to see a dermatologist and was finally diagnosed. Each trip to the oncologist reveals more bad news. The single mother living in Saanich has endured one round of chemotherapy and four surgeries to remove tumours and lymph nodes from her leg, including during her last surgery on May 24.
Wolf now has the medical assistance of two dermatologists, an oncologist, a family doctor, a radiation specialist and two surgeons – but when it comes to help at home, she’s struggling.
Wolf has been unable to return to her position as a postal worker since her diagnosis and is primarily concerned with providing for Lucas. She hopes to secure help with his childcare. Ideally, that would include moving into affordable accommodations in Duncan where she could live near her best friend, Elisha Morrison, who regularly travels to Victoria to watch Lucas when she’s able. Morrison, Wolf’s support and mother to two, is named in Wolf’s will as Lucas’ guardian,
Wolf’s friends have established a trust fund to provide for Lucas’ future. They’ve also begun fundraising to send the duo on a summer vacation. Wolf would like to take her son to see Legoland in California.
Wolf’s oncologist has given her a 20 per cent chance of living another five years and suggested she take the trip this year.
“She went to doctor after doctor after doctor saying: ‘This thing is itchy; my wart is itchy’ and they kept saying: ‘Don’t worry about it,’” said Morrison, who does her best to provide some help for her friend, although living in Duncan makes it tough.
“All people, women and men, need to know, if you feel something is bad and wrong, you have to do something about it,” Wolf said. “You can’t just let them tell you it’s OK.”
Wolf investigated the prospect of taking legal action for the negligent medical care she received, but learned that given the number of different doctors who had dismissed her concerns, both on the Mainland and in Greater Victoria, she was left with little recourse.
Wolf’s medical care prior to her diagnosis – marked by walk-in clinic after walk-in clinic without the consistency of a family doctor – is typical of how many people seek medical help in the face of few doctors accepting new patients in Greater Victoria.
While in their last annual report, released in June 2011, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia boasted having made steps toward improving the issue of patients left without family doctors by licensing 387 new physicians in B.C., the stage is set for Wolf’s story to recur.
As of Dec. 31, 2011, the college had 10, 842 active general practitioners in the province and 575 accepting new patients. Only four doctors in Greater Victoria are accepting new patients. Of those, each has stipulations on who they will accept and none of the offices are located in Saanich.
“I’m upset because I never got good medical care,” Wolf said. “When you’re young, people don’t take you very seriously … It makes me so angry because (clinics) all have that skin cancer poster in their offices. Why do they have it there is it’s something they don’t take seriously?”
-
Thank you for writing about this Bridget.Kate Neale is telling her compelling story…Video, Globe and MailToronto SunTORONTO – A 22-year-old Ontario woman battling deadly skin cancer is the face of a new push to ban youth from using indoor tanning beds.
“I had truly believed what I had been taught by the industry that tanning prevented cancers, and that the industry had the documents and scientists and even some dermatologists to back up these claims,” Kate Neale said. “Instead, it seems I’d had a death wish.”
NDP MPP France Gelinas introduced a private member’s bill Thursday that would ban tanning salon use by youth under the age of 18.
Gelinas said salons are targeting young people with promotions tied to teenager events like proms and graduations.
The tanning industry will tell customers that it’s healthier than sitting in the sun, that it boosts Vitamin D and that a base tan will protect against cancer, Gelinas said.
“All of those claims are false,” she said. “There is no safe tan.”
Martin Kabat, CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society in Ontario, said the rate of melanoma in the young is rising at the same time as teenagers are increasingly using indoor tanning beds.
“A new survey commissioned by the Society in early April, conducted among school children between the ages of 12 and 17, revealed that as many as 11% of students in Grade 11, and 21% of those in grade 12 are now going to indoor tanning salons,” he said. “This is a behaviour that is crying out to be controlled.”
Neale, who has fair skin that burns in the sun, began tanning heavily at age 16 in her hometown of Belleville and went on to work at a salon where she was required to retain a deep golden glow.
Last April, after a move to Ottawa, doctors discovered that a freckle on her stomach was melanoma.
“Today, I have a six-inch scar on my stomach and I live with so much fear. I’m currently waiting for the results of another biopsy. I always have new spots appearing and changing,” she said. “I’ll never forget the moment I walked into the plastic surgeon’s office with my mother and he… thought she was the patient.”
Neale said she first began tanning because it made her feel skinnier and prettier, but now she realizes that it is an addiction – tanorexia – that lights up the same parts of the brain as drugs and alcohol.
Steve Gilroy, executive direction of the Joint Canadian Tanning Association, said professional salons already adhere to voluntary standards which include parental consent for clients under the age of 18, mandatory protective eyewear and barring customers with the fairest skin.
Gilroy said the risk of cancer from tanning in a professional salon falls into the same category as sunlight and birth control pills.
Health Minister Deb Matthews said young people should not be using tanning beds but has yet to decide if a legislated ban is the appropriate course of action.http://www.torontosun.com/2012/04/26/cancer-patient-on-tanning-it-seems-i-had-a-death-wish
——————————————————————————
Canadian Cancer Society.
Exposing the secret lives of tanning teens in Ontario: Ipsos Reid poll results have Canadian Cancer Society renewing call for ban on indoor tanning for youth under 18
26 April 2012
TORONTO –A rare snapshot of teen behaviour was released today by the Canadian Cancer Society. The poll sheds light on why Ontario teens tan, how often, and the reasons they start using indoor tanning equipment.
Indoor tanning causes skin cancer. In 2009, the world’s foremost authority in identifying the causes of cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, classified ultraviolet radiation devices, including tanning beds, as known carcinogens. The Society has taken up the issue of youth tanning, because tanning bed use before the age of 35 increases a person’s risk of developing skin cancer by 75%. Melanoma skin cancer is also one of the most common and deadliest forms of cancer amongst people ages 15 to 29, and is one of the most preventable.
“The Canadian Cancer Society has been advocating on this important issue for more than six years,” says Joanne Di Nardo, the Society’s Public Issues Senior Manager. “The results of our poll further strengthen the need for the Government of Ontario to support France Gélinas’ new Private Members’ bill that restricts youth under 18 year of age from using indoor tanning equipment."
The poll conducted by Ipsos Reid investigated tanning behaviours of Ontario youth ages 12 to 17.
Key findings:
- 52% of youth indoor tanners say that their parents pay for their tanning bed use
- 24% of youth indoor tanners say that parents first introduced them to tanning
- 21% of youth in grade 12 are using tanning beds
- 11% of youth in grade 11 are using tanning beds
- 8% (1 in 10) youth in Ontario are using a tanning bed, up from 5% six years ago
Meet Kate, 21 year old melanoma cancer survivor
As a teenager growing up in Belleville, Kate Neale wanted to be tanned. Against the wishes of her parents and regardless of the fact that she had very light and sunburn-prone skin, Kate started indoor tanning at age 16. In the beginning, she tanned two to three times a week but soon ended up going for 12 to 16 minutes in the highest UVB pressured bed (double strength) sessions up to 16 times per month. The recommended maximum tanning time on this particular bed was 12 minutes (there was a sticker on the bed that stated this), however the salon allowed customers to tan in this bed for up to 30 minutes.
After graduating high school, Kate applied for a job at a tanning salon. She signed a contract saying that in return for maintaining a tanned appearance she would receive 12 free indoor tanning sessions and one spray tan per month. She worked in the salon for two and half years and studied Marketing at Loyalist College in Belleville before heading to Ottawa to work as an office administrator.
In May 2011, while visiting her parents, Kate’s mother noticed that a freckle on her daughter’s stomach had changed. A visit to a dermatologist and a biopsy later, confirmed that the freckle was actually melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Over the next few weeks, Kate underwent three more biopsies for skin lesions on her right breast, leg and arms.
“I’ll never forget going to the surgeon’s office with my mom — he thought she was the patient. When he realized that I was the patient, he told me I was the youngest person he’d ever treated for melanoma. I’m only 21,” says Kate. “Fortunately my cancer was found at an early-stage (Clarks Stage 2), when it was non-invasive. Today, I have a six-inch scar on my stomach and live with so much fear.”
Despite her experience, Kate says she’s still addicted to maintaining a tanned appearance but now uses self-tanning lotion or spray tanning. Her battle with skin cancer is not over. Frequently new spots appear on her skin and she says they are always changing. Currently, Kate is waiting for the results of another biopsy, which left her with 22 stitches on her left breast, and a total of 8 spots have been removed since June, one being pre-cancerous. Repeated doctor’s visits and the stress and anxiety of the situation have taken their toll on her academic and work career. This January, Kate left Ottawa and headed back to live with her parents.
Recently, Kate started volunteering with the Canadian Cancer Society, spending her time educating local teenagers about the dangers of indoor tanning and encouraging them to host a Tan-Free Prom this spring. She’s also become vocal about the need for regulation of the indoor tanning industry.
“If politicians need a reason to take action on this issue, they should just take a look at my story to see how tanning at a young age has impacted my life,” says Kate.
On April 26, Kate will be among more than 80 Canadian Cancer Society volunteers and staff from across the province who will gather at Queens Park to discuss the Society’s policy recommendations on indoor tanning which include:
- Prohibiting youth under the age of 18 from using indoor tanning equipment
- Restricting indoor tanning promotions and marketing targeted to youth
- Maintaining a registry or licensing system for indoor tanning equipment in use in Ontario with fees put towards enforcement
- Introducing mandatory and comprehensive training that is specific to Ontario for all staff operating indoor tanning equipment. Training would include operation procedures, maintenance and how to identify people with fair skin who are at greater risk of developing cancer.
- Ensuring the health risks associated with ultraviolet radiation (UVR) emitting devices are displayed prominently and in clear view of clients at all indoor tanning facilities
Legislative action needed now
Diseases such as cancer are taking a significant toll on an already strained healthcare system. Skin cancer is mostly preventable and is often treated by a dermatologist or a family doctor with costs billed to OHIP. In 2011, Cancer Care Ontario estimated the cost of skin cancer in province would exceed $344 million[i]. In 2011, it was estimated that 5,500 Canadians were diagnosed with melanoma and 74,100 with non-melanoma skin cancer[ii].
“Enacting legislation to prevent skin cancer should be a no-brainer for all political parties because it provides an opportunity for substantial healthcare cost reduction,” says Joanne Di Nardo. “Also, fees collected by a licensing or registry would off-set the costs of an effective enforcement strategy.”
Ontario needs to join other jurisdictions such as France, California, Australia, United Kingdom, Nova Scotia and British Columbia in taking proactive steps to address this pressing cancer prevention issue.
"With thousands of letters and postcards from youth asking for this legislation and an industry which cannot be trusted to self-regulate, it's time for the government to step in,” says France Gélinas, MPP, Nickel Belt and NDP Health Critic. “This is a commonsense solution to the increasing rates of skin cancer among youth and young adults; it won't cost the government anything and it will help prevent the multiple costs associated with a lifetime of cancer-related care for people and the government."
About the poll
The Ipsos Reid poll was conducted in April, 2012, on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Ontario Division. For this survey, a sample of 1,476 students in grades 7-12, aged 12 to 17, from Ipsos' Canadian online panel was interviewed online. Gender was split 50/50, census data provided regional weights and each grade level was given equal weight. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had the entire population of students in Ontario in grade 7 to 12, aged 12 to 17, been polled.
[i] Cancer Care Ontario. Cancer Fact: Cost of skin cancer in Ontario will exceed $344 million in 2011. June 2011. Available at http://www.cancercare.on.ca/cancerfacts/
[ii] Canadian Cancer Society’s Steering Committee on Cancer Statistics, Canadian Cancer Statistics 2011. Toronto, ON: Canadian Cancer Society; 2011.
The Canadian Cancer Society is a national community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is the eradication of cancer and the enhancement of the quality of life of people living with cancer. When you want to know more about cancer, visit our website http://www.cancer.ca or call our toll-free, bilingual Cancer Information Service at 1 888 939-3333.
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Sr. Coordinator, Media Relations
Ontario Division
Phone: (416) 488-5402 x2305
——————————————————————————————————-
This last article is about a young stage three mom who wasted years trying to have an itchy mole removed (a known warning sign) and shows why associating skin cancer with young people is vitally important.
Young mom falls through cracks of medical system
By Natalie North – Saanich News
Published: June 01, 2012 11:00 AM
Updated: June 06, 2012 1:52 PM
Three-year-old Lucas Wolf lies on a couch next to his mother Julia in their Saanich home. Julia spent years trying to have a skin blemished diagnosed, but learned too late that she has an aggressive and possibly fatal form of skin cancer.Don Denton/News staffJulia Wolf’s eyes focused on the melanoma poster fixed to the examination room door. The 19-year-old thought there was a chance the freckle on her leg might be one of the “less dangerous” forms of skin cancer.
Wolf told the walk-in clinic doctor her freckle had certain signs of cancer. It itched and changed shape over time.
He laughed and told her she was too young for that.
“He basically made me feel like an idiot for even asking,” said Wolf, now 28 and diagnosed with Stage 3 metastatic melanoma. “Yeah I was 19, but it turns out you’re not too young at the age of 19.
“If he had sent me to a dermatologist or looked into it, I could have caught it early on, but he just didn’t take it seriously.”
While the spot grew and changed, Wolf sought more medical help, but like that first encounter, she continued to hear the same message: she was too young to have skin cancer – she was healthy. Seven doctors later, she had little more than diagnoses of dry skin, a wart and hypochondria.
Years after that first clinic visit, another doctor suggested Wolf’s daily waves of nausea were allergic reactions to work.
“He was really rude and I felt embarrassed. It’s all because I was young and it pisses me off because it’s my life. I expected somebody to give a damn and nobody did. Everybody can go on their merry way and I’m dying.”
In October 2008 when she was pregnant with her son Lucas, Wolf demanded to see a dermatologist and was finally diagnosed. Each trip to the oncologist reveals more bad news. The single mother living in Saanich has endured one round of chemotherapy and four surgeries to remove tumours and lymph nodes from her leg, including during her last surgery on May 24.
Wolf now has the medical assistance of two dermatologists, an oncologist, a family doctor, a radiation specialist and two surgeons – but when it comes to help at home, she’s struggling.
Wolf has been unable to return to her position as a postal worker since her diagnosis and is primarily concerned with providing for Lucas. She hopes to secure help with his childcare. Ideally, that would include moving into affordable accommodations in Duncan where she could live near her best friend, Elisha Morrison, who regularly travels to Victoria to watch Lucas when she’s able. Morrison, Wolf’s support and mother to two, is named in Wolf’s will as Lucas’ guardian,
Wolf’s friends have established a trust fund to provide for Lucas’ future. They’ve also begun fundraising to send the duo on a summer vacation. Wolf would like to take her son to see Legoland in California.
Wolf’s oncologist has given her a 20 per cent chance of living another five years and suggested she take the trip this year.
“She went to doctor after doctor after doctor saying: ‘This thing is itchy; my wart is itchy’ and they kept saying: ‘Don’t worry about it,’” said Morrison, who does her best to provide some help for her friend, although living in Duncan makes it tough.
“All people, women and men, need to know, if you feel something is bad and wrong, you have to do something about it,” Wolf said. “You can’t just let them tell you it’s OK.”
Wolf investigated the prospect of taking legal action for the negligent medical care she received, but learned that given the number of different doctors who had dismissed her concerns, both on the Mainland and in Greater Victoria, she was left with little recourse.
Wolf’s medical care prior to her diagnosis – marked by walk-in clinic after walk-in clinic without the consistency of a family doctor – is typical of how many people seek medical help in the face of few doctors accepting new patients in Greater Victoria.
While in their last annual report, released in June 2011, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia boasted having made steps toward improving the issue of patients left without family doctors by licensing 387 new physicians in B.C., the stage is set for Wolf’s story to recur.
As of Dec. 31, 2011, the college had 10, 842 active general practitioners in the province and 575 accepting new patients. Only four doctors in Greater Victoria are accepting new patients. Of those, each has stipulations on who they will accept and none of the offices are located in Saanich.
“I’m upset because I never got good medical care,” Wolf said. “When you’re young, people don’t take you very seriously … It makes me so angry because (clinics) all have that skin cancer poster in their offices. Why do they have it there is it’s something they don’t take seriously?”
-
Thank you for writing about this Bridget.Kate Neale is telling her compelling story…Video, Globe and MailToronto SunTORONTO – A 22-year-old Ontario woman battling deadly skin cancer is the face of a new push to ban youth from using indoor tanning beds.
“I had truly believed what I had been taught by the industry that tanning prevented cancers, and that the industry had the documents and scientists and even some dermatologists to back up these claims,” Kate Neale said. “Instead, it seems I’d had a death wish.”
NDP MPP France Gelinas introduced a private member’s bill Thursday that would ban tanning salon use by youth under the age of 18.
Gelinas said salons are targeting young people with promotions tied to teenager events like proms and graduations.
The tanning industry will tell customers that it’s healthier than sitting in the sun, that it boosts Vitamin D and that a base tan will protect against cancer, Gelinas said.
“All of those claims are false,” she said. “There is no safe tan.”
Martin Kabat, CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society in Ontario, said the rate of melanoma in the young is rising at the same time as teenagers are increasingly using indoor tanning beds.
“A new survey commissioned by the Society in early April, conducted among school children between the ages of 12 and 17, revealed that as many as 11% of students in Grade 11, and 21% of those in grade 12 are now going to indoor tanning salons,” he said. “This is a behaviour that is crying out to be controlled.”
Neale, who has fair skin that burns in the sun, began tanning heavily at age 16 in her hometown of Belleville and went on to work at a salon where she was required to retain a deep golden glow.
Last April, after a move to Ottawa, doctors discovered that a freckle on her stomach was melanoma.
“Today, I have a six-inch scar on my stomach and I live with so much fear. I’m currently waiting for the results of another biopsy. I always have new spots appearing and changing,” she said. “I’ll never forget the moment I walked into the plastic surgeon’s office with my mother and he… thought she was the patient.”
Neale said she first began tanning because it made her feel skinnier and prettier, but now she realizes that it is an addiction – tanorexia – that lights up the same parts of the brain as drugs and alcohol.
Steve Gilroy, executive direction of the Joint Canadian Tanning Association, said professional salons already adhere to voluntary standards which include parental consent for clients under the age of 18, mandatory protective eyewear and barring customers with the fairest skin.
Gilroy said the risk of cancer from tanning in a professional salon falls into the same category as sunlight and birth control pills.
Health Minister Deb Matthews said young people should not be using tanning beds but has yet to decide if a legislated ban is the appropriate course of action.http://www.torontosun.com/2012/04/26/cancer-patient-on-tanning-it-seems-i-had-a-death-wish
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Canadian Cancer Society.
Exposing the secret lives of tanning teens in Ontario: Ipsos Reid poll results have Canadian Cancer Society renewing call for ban on indoor tanning for youth under 18
26 April 2012
TORONTO –A rare snapshot of teen behaviour was released today by the Canadian Cancer Society. The poll sheds light on why Ontario teens tan, how often, and the reasons they start using indoor tanning equipment.
Indoor tanning causes skin cancer. In 2009, the world’s foremost authority in identifying the causes of cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, classified ultraviolet radiation devices, including tanning beds, as known carcinogens. The Society has taken up the issue of youth tanning, because tanning bed use before the age of 35 increases a person’s risk of developing skin cancer by 75%. Melanoma skin cancer is also one of the most common and deadliest forms of cancer amongst people ages 15 to 29, and is one of the most preventable.
“The Canadian Cancer Society has been advocating on this important issue for more than six years,” says Joanne Di Nardo, the Society’s Public Issues Senior Manager. “The results of our poll further strengthen the need for the Government of Ontario to support France Gélinas’ new Private Members’ bill that restricts youth under 18 year of age from using indoor tanning equipment."
The poll conducted by Ipsos Reid investigated tanning behaviours of Ontario youth ages 12 to 17.
Key findings:
- 52% of youth indoor tanners say that their parents pay for their tanning bed use
- 24% of youth indoor tanners say that parents first introduced them to tanning
- 21% of youth in grade 12 are using tanning beds
- 11% of youth in grade 11 are using tanning beds
- 8% (1 in 10) youth in Ontario are using a tanning bed, up from 5% six years ago
Meet Kate, 21 year old melanoma cancer survivor
As a teenager growing up in Belleville, Kate Neale wanted to be tanned. Against the wishes of her parents and regardless of the fact that she had very light and sunburn-prone skin, Kate started indoor tanning at age 16. In the beginning, she tanned two to three times a week but soon ended up going for 12 to 16 minutes in the highest UVB pressured bed (double strength) sessions up to 16 times per month. The recommended maximum tanning time on this particular bed was 12 minutes (there was a sticker on the bed that stated this), however the salon allowed customers to tan in this bed for up to 30 minutes.
After graduating high school, Kate applied for a job at a tanning salon. She signed a contract saying that in return for maintaining a tanned appearance she would receive 12 free indoor tanning sessions and one spray tan per month. She worked in the salon for two and half years and studied Marketing at Loyalist College in Belleville before heading to Ottawa to work as an office administrator.
In May 2011, while visiting her parents, Kate’s mother noticed that a freckle on her daughter’s stomach had changed. A visit to a dermatologist and a biopsy later, confirmed that the freckle was actually melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Over the next few weeks, Kate underwent three more biopsies for skin lesions on her right breast, leg and arms.
“I’ll never forget going to the surgeon’s office with my mom — he thought she was the patient. When he realized that I was the patient, he told me I was the youngest person he’d ever treated for melanoma. I’m only 21,” says Kate. “Fortunately my cancer was found at an early-stage (Clarks Stage 2), when it was non-invasive. Today, I have a six-inch scar on my stomach and live with so much fear.”
Despite her experience, Kate says she’s still addicted to maintaining a tanned appearance but now uses self-tanning lotion or spray tanning. Her battle with skin cancer is not over. Frequently new spots appear on her skin and she says they are always changing. Currently, Kate is waiting for the results of another biopsy, which left her with 22 stitches on her left breast, and a total of 8 spots have been removed since June, one being pre-cancerous. Repeated doctor’s visits and the stress and anxiety of the situation have taken their toll on her academic and work career. This January, Kate left Ottawa and headed back to live with her parents.
Recently, Kate started volunteering with the Canadian Cancer Society, spending her time educating local teenagers about the dangers of indoor tanning and encouraging them to host a Tan-Free Prom this spring. She’s also become vocal about the need for regulation of the indoor tanning industry.
“If politicians need a reason to take action on this issue, they should just take a look at my story to see how tanning at a young age has impacted my life,” says Kate.
On April 26, Kate will be among more than 80 Canadian Cancer Society volunteers and staff from across the province who will gather at Queens Park to discuss the Society’s policy recommendations on indoor tanning which include:
- Prohibiting youth under the age of 18 from using indoor tanning equipment
- Restricting indoor tanning promotions and marketing targeted to youth
- Maintaining a registry or licensing system for indoor tanning equipment in use in Ontario with fees put towards enforcement
- Introducing mandatory and comprehensive training that is specific to Ontario for all staff operating indoor tanning equipment. Training would include operation procedures, maintenance and how to identify people with fair skin who are at greater risk of developing cancer.
- Ensuring the health risks associated with ultraviolet radiation (UVR) emitting devices are displayed prominently and in clear view of clients at all indoor tanning facilities
Legislative action needed now
Diseases such as cancer are taking a significant toll on an already strained healthcare system. Skin cancer is mostly preventable and is often treated by a dermatologist or a family doctor with costs billed to OHIP. In 2011, Cancer Care Ontario estimated the cost of skin cancer in province would exceed $344 million[i]. In 2011, it was estimated that 5,500 Canadians were diagnosed with melanoma and 74,100 with non-melanoma skin cancer[ii].
“Enacting legislation to prevent skin cancer should be a no-brainer for all political parties because it provides an opportunity for substantial healthcare cost reduction,” says Joanne Di Nardo. “Also, fees collected by a licensing or registry would off-set the costs of an effective enforcement strategy.”
Ontario needs to join other jurisdictions such as France, California, Australia, United Kingdom, Nova Scotia and British Columbia in taking proactive steps to address this pressing cancer prevention issue.
"With thousands of letters and postcards from youth asking for this legislation and an industry which cannot be trusted to self-regulate, it's time for the government to step in,” says France Gélinas, MPP, Nickel Belt and NDP Health Critic. “This is a commonsense solution to the increasing rates of skin cancer among youth and young adults; it won't cost the government anything and it will help prevent the multiple costs associated with a lifetime of cancer-related care for people and the government."
About the poll
The Ipsos Reid poll was conducted in April, 2012, on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Ontario Division. For this survey, a sample of 1,476 students in grades 7-12, aged 12 to 17, from Ipsos' Canadian online panel was interviewed online. Gender was split 50/50, census data provided regional weights and each grade level was given equal weight. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had the entire population of students in Ontario in grade 7 to 12, aged 12 to 17, been polled.
[i] Cancer Care Ontario. Cancer Fact: Cost of skin cancer in Ontario will exceed $344 million in 2011. June 2011. Available at http://www.cancercare.on.ca/cancerfacts/
[ii] Canadian Cancer Society’s Steering Committee on Cancer Statistics, Canadian Cancer Statistics 2011. Toronto, ON: Canadian Cancer Society; 2011.
The Canadian Cancer Society is a national community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is the eradication of cancer and the enhancement of the quality of life of people living with cancer. When you want to know more about cancer, visit our website http://www.cancer.ca or call our toll-free, bilingual Cancer Information Service at 1 888 939-3333.
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For more information, please contact:
Sr. Coordinator, Media Relations
Ontario Division
Phone: (416) 488-5402 x2305
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This last article is about a young stage three mom who wasted years trying to have an itchy mole removed (a known warning sign) and shows why associating skin cancer with young people is vitally important.
Young mom falls through cracks of medical system
By Natalie North – Saanich News
Published: June 01, 2012 11:00 AM
Updated: June 06, 2012 1:52 PM
Three-year-old Lucas Wolf lies on a couch next to his mother Julia in their Saanich home. Julia spent years trying to have a skin blemished diagnosed, but learned too late that she has an aggressive and possibly fatal form of skin cancer.Don Denton/News staffJulia Wolf’s eyes focused on the melanoma poster fixed to the examination room door. The 19-year-old thought there was a chance the freckle on her leg might be one of the “less dangerous” forms of skin cancer.
Wolf told the walk-in clinic doctor her freckle had certain signs of cancer. It itched and changed shape over time.
He laughed and told her she was too young for that.
“He basically made me feel like an idiot for even asking,” said Wolf, now 28 and diagnosed with Stage 3 metastatic melanoma. “Yeah I was 19, but it turns out you’re not too young at the age of 19.
“If he had sent me to a dermatologist or looked into it, I could have caught it early on, but he just didn’t take it seriously.”
While the spot grew and changed, Wolf sought more medical help, but like that first encounter, she continued to hear the same message: she was too young to have skin cancer – she was healthy. Seven doctors later, she had little more than diagnoses of dry skin, a wart and hypochondria.
Years after that first clinic visit, another doctor suggested Wolf’s daily waves of nausea were allergic reactions to work.
“He was really rude and I felt embarrassed. It’s all because I was young and it pisses me off because it’s my life. I expected somebody to give a damn and nobody did. Everybody can go on their merry way and I’m dying.”
In October 2008 when she was pregnant with her son Lucas, Wolf demanded to see a dermatologist and was finally diagnosed. Each trip to the oncologist reveals more bad news. The single mother living in Saanich has endured one round of chemotherapy and four surgeries to remove tumours and lymph nodes from her leg, including during her last surgery on May 24.
Wolf now has the medical assistance of two dermatologists, an oncologist, a family doctor, a radiation specialist and two surgeons – but when it comes to help at home, she’s struggling.
Wolf has been unable to return to her position as a postal worker since her diagnosis and is primarily concerned with providing for Lucas. She hopes to secure help with his childcare. Ideally, that would include moving into affordable accommodations in Duncan where she could live near her best friend, Elisha Morrison, who regularly travels to Victoria to watch Lucas when she’s able. Morrison, Wolf’s support and mother to two, is named in Wolf’s will as Lucas’ guardian,
Wolf’s friends have established a trust fund to provide for Lucas’ future. They’ve also begun fundraising to send the duo on a summer vacation. Wolf would like to take her son to see Legoland in California.
Wolf’s oncologist has given her a 20 per cent chance of living another five years and suggested she take the trip this year.
“She went to doctor after doctor after doctor saying: ‘This thing is itchy; my wart is itchy’ and they kept saying: ‘Don’t worry about it,’” said Morrison, who does her best to provide some help for her friend, although living in Duncan makes it tough.
“All people, women and men, need to know, if you feel something is bad and wrong, you have to do something about it,” Wolf said. “You can’t just let them tell you it’s OK.”
Wolf investigated the prospect of taking legal action for the negligent medical care she received, but learned that given the number of different doctors who had dismissed her concerns, both on the Mainland and in Greater Victoria, she was left with little recourse.
Wolf’s medical care prior to her diagnosis – marked by walk-in clinic after walk-in clinic without the consistency of a family doctor – is typical of how many people seek medical help in the face of few doctors accepting new patients in Greater Victoria.
While in their last annual report, released in June 2011, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia boasted having made steps toward improving the issue of patients left without family doctors by licensing 387 new physicians in B.C., the stage is set for Wolf’s story to recur.
As of Dec. 31, 2011, the college had 10, 842 active general practitioners in the province and 575 accepting new patients. Only four doctors in Greater Victoria are accepting new patients. Of those, each has stipulations on who they will accept and none of the offices are located in Saanich.
“I’m upset because I never got good medical care,” Wolf said. “When you’re young, people don’t take you very seriously … It makes me so angry because (clinics) all have that skin cancer poster in their offices. Why do they have it there is it’s something they don’t take seriously?”
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