Children in Lisburn wise up about the dangers of sun

When asked before the sessions just over half 7-11 year olds knew that wearing sun screen in Northern Ireland was a good idea and afterwards this increased to almost 90%. And before the talks by Action Cancer health promotion staff half of children understood that having tan means your skin is damaged, increasing to 81% afterwards

The evaluation of the Health Action sessions was conducted using a simple questionnaire and involved more than 1,200 children at 71 schools across Northern Ireland, including a number in the Lisburn area.

Action Cancer Health Promotion Officer Catherine Foreman said; “Hundreds of thousands of children have taken part in the Health Action programme over the years and our aim is to impart crucial health information that will help them avoid cancer in later life

“We believe the evaluation proves that the sessions are successful in improving children’s understanding of healthy behaviours and in the case of the sun safety results this should lead to children adopting healthier habits in the sun, reducing their risk of skin cancer.”

Action Cancer’s unique curriculum-focused Health Action programme delivers health promotion sessions, centred around cancer prevention and early detection, to more than 30,000 young people every year. For nursery and younger primary schoolchildren the sessions take the form of a puppet show, demonstrating the importance of healthy eating, exercise, being safe in the sun and the dangers of smoking and alcohol. For 7-11 year olds Action Cancer staff give a 2 week set of talks with similar messages.

The award-winning Health Action programme is supported by Centra retailers across the province, who have raised more than £700,000 to fund the project over the past nine years.