The Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-03-26, Page 35HOPE page 6
Clinton volunteers active in the work of the Canadian Cancer Society are, left to right,
Wendy Tremeer, Huron County Unit secretary and Clinton Branch treasurer; Steve Biskup,
Unit treasurer; Rita Flynn, Branch transportation chairman; and Gayle Brownridge, Unit
relief secretary. Absent for photo were the following Branch members: Freda Slade -
president; Helen Davies -past president and PD&N; Marion Peck -secretary; Gerry Holmes -
campaign chairman; Steve Brown -special events chairman; Elaine Blair -patient services;
and Hazel Brown-P.S. convener. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan)
Who is the Cancer Society
Who is the Canadian Cancer Society?
It is you and millions of other Canadians.
The Society is made up of volunteers from
every corner of Canada. Literally millions
of Canadians contribute money and time
every year to the Society.
The Society is headed by a National Office
and has Divisional Offices in each of the ten
provinces. Each Division in turn is divided
into smaller groups finally resulting in the
local units m your area to which you and/or
your neighbours may belong. About 5000
communities in Canada are served by the
Society.
Internationally, the Society is a leading
member of the International Union Against
Cancer. People from the Society work
through this and other international
organizations to share ideas with people
around the world. Because of its highly suc-
cessful and innovative programs and
materials the Society's expertise is called
upon by many nations.
Nobody in the Society is paid with the ex-
ception of a small professional staff to serve
the volunteer committees and boards that
conduct the affairs of the Society. Most of
the daily person-to-person contact that is at
the heart of the Society's activities is done
by individual volunteers in every part of the
nation.
There are four main activities. of the
• Society: Public Education, Service to Pa-
tients, Research and Fund Raising. The
Society's funds for cancer research are ad-
ministered by the National Cancer Institute
CAUSES OF SKIN CANCER of Canada, the medical -scientific sister
organization of the Society.
Repeated exposure over many years to
the ultraviolet rays of the skin is the prin- PUBLIC EDUCATION
cipal known cause of skin cancer. No one is
immune, but those at higher risk are men
and women who continuously work in the
sun or seek it out to swim, ski, play tennis,
boat, golf, fish, or simply stretch out to get a
tan. Farmers, fishermen and sailors as well
Facts on skin cancer
Here are the facts about cancer of the skin
- signs and symptoms, progress in diagnosis
and treatment, hope for recovery and for
the future. •
Cancer of the skin is the most common of
all cancers. With the exception of malignant
melanoma, a rare form of the disease, the
overall cure rate for skin cancer is higher
than 90 percent.. About 16,000 new cases of
skin cancer are detected each year in
Canada Mere are_ approximately . 400
reported deaths from skin cancer every:owv2
year but at least 80 percent of them result
from the melanoma variety.
FUNCTIONS OF THE SKIN
distribute Society materials.
SERVICE TO PATIENTS
' jnore recent activity of the Society is
Service to Patients. Volunteers from across
the country help cancer patients cope with
their illness. There are a number of dif-
ferent programs individually suited to pro-
vincial needs. Several provinces have
established lodge accommodation for out-of-
town patients attending the hospital for
treatment. Services offerd by the Society
can vary from the provision of dressings,
prostheses and -pain-killing drugs to such
personal services as driving patients to
clinics for periodic treatments or check-up.
and home visiting. A number of provinces
have programs in which former and current
cancer patients can talk with each other for
emotional support. There is the Mastectomy
Visitors Program, aimed at helping the
mastectomy patient resume her normal life,
both physically and emotionally. Free tem-
porary prostheses are available to mastec-
tomees, and there is even material for
husbands to help them deal with their wives'
cancers. The Society believes that often
emotional and psychological support is as
important as medical treatment in helping
people deal with cancer.
RESEARCH
The Society is the major source of funds
for cancer research in Canada. The money
is administered by the National Cancer In-
stitute of Canada (NCIC), a medical -
scientific voluntary agency which is in-
terlinked with the Canadian Cancer Society.
The NCIC screens applicants from scien-
tists and doctors in Canada who are experts
The Society was founded in 1938 as a in the fields of cancer research and cancer
voluntary charitable organization. Doctors treatment. It then grants moneys to -their
were concerned about patients with cancer associated institutions which in turn ad -
who delayed a long time before seeking minister the funds for research. The staff of
medical treatment. An original goal of the the NCIC is extremely small, relying on
other outdoor workers are at a high h k
ris . Society was the education of the
The skin protects the body from injury. It
also receives sensory impulses, excretes
waste substances and regulates body
temperature. This is done through specializ-
ed structures such as nerves, hair and nails,
pores and various types of glands.
Skin is constantly exposed to sun, wind, in-
dustrial elements and other causes of exter-
nal and internal injury. Although abnor-
malities resulting from these conditions are
usually not cancerous, some can lead to
cancer. -
The most common pre -cancerous condi-
tion is senile or actinic (sun -ray) keratosis,
a scaly skin -thickening that develops in a
small area, usually the face, neck or hands.
This type of keratosis most often develops in
older persons whose skin has been exposed
for many years to the ultra -violet rays of the
sun.
WHAT IS SKIN CANCER?
There are three main types of skin cancer,
classified according to the cells involved -
basal cell, squamous cell and melanoma.
More than 95 percent of all skin cancers fall
into the first two classifications. Most skin
cancers invade only local adjacent tissues
but some, including malignant melanoma,
the rarest type of skin cancer, may spread
in the blood or lymphatic system. Because
melanoma has some very different
characteristics from the other two types of
skin cancer, it is described separately near'
the end of this article.
Basal cell cancer occurs most frequently,
-but _grows --slowly -...and - arely _spreads:
However, if left untreated, the cancer can
extend to • underlying bone or adjacent skin
tissue, causilig considerable problems.
uamous cell cancer occurs less often, and
occasionally can spread rapidly. Since both
types are.easily cured but potentially fatal if
ignored, early detection and treatment are
very important.
Although these skin cancers can apear
on almost any area of the skin, they most
commonly develop on exposed parts of the
body - face, neck, forearms and back of
hands. They generally show up on the skin in
one of two forms - either as a pale, waxlike,
pearly nodule that may eventually ulcerate
and"crust, or as a red, scaly, sharply outlin-
ed patch. These two types of skin cancer
may look similar to the eye, but are dif-
ferent under the microscope.
public to in- panels of experts from Canada and
> , .!e ec9 = �a elvTT��a en *o edse �F ➢itzr�e_aray etLearicil-- s ere -ta-review -t-lhe-applications.. The.._
from the direct rays of the sun. Although of cancer. That Ts still a major theme of the small overhead and the process of peer
some sun exposure cannot be avoided, the Society: early detection and treatment can review ensure the greatest benefit for the
North American habit of getting a tan save lives. - money spent. In 1980, the NCIC awarded
should be discouraged young usly, In the late 1950s, the Society developed over 15.6 million dollars. This represented
especiallyince in teenagers v and young which is another majorpublic education theme: more than half of all the money spent on
since it is exposure over time is cancer research in Canada. And it came
dangerous. many cancers can actually be prevented. A from you.
Fair -skinned people, notably redheads striking example is the number of cancers
and blonds, are most susceptible to skin caused by cigarette smoking. We estimate
cancer. Their problem is they lack sufficient that today more than 7500 cancer deaths
each year, one in five, are caused by
quantities of melanin, the pigment
substance that filters out the rays of the sun. cigarette smoking and therefore could be
The wide range of skin tones is determined Prevented. As we learn more about cancer -
by the amount of melanin in the skin; the causing substances in the environment, in-
darker brown the skin, the greater the eluding the workplace, and the role of diet in
amount of melanin. Blacks, among whom health and disease, it is likely that we will
skin cancer is rare, have sufficient malanin discover even more ways to prevent cancer;
to protect their skin from ultraviolet rays. Most things, of course, don't cause cancer,
The albino has no melanin. but identifying the relatively few substances
that do will put on the road to avoiding or
Those who are out in the sun either
eliminating them.
because of occupation or sport interests
should use one of the many readily -
available sun block preparations, and; if
possible, a protective hat and long-sleeved
shirts should be worn.
Other less common but important risk
factors, usually found in an industrial set-
ting, are prolonged contacts with coal, tar,
pitch, arsenic compounds, paraffin oil and
radium.
DETECTION AND DIAGNOSIS
People should be alert to any unusual skin
Turn to page 7 e
The Public Education program of the
Society has grown to the point • where it is
now the most important source of informa-
tion about cancer in Canada. Films, posters,
pamphlets, TV messages, radio promos,
window streamers, transit cards and but-
tons are just some of the media employed.
There are school kits, breast self-
examination clinics, workplace visits, club For more information on the materials,
presentations, special events, mall displays, programs and services offered by the Cana -
programs with health professionals and dian Cancer Society, or on how you . can
public forums. Thousands and thousands of volunteer, consult your local office of the
volunteers conduct these programs and Society.
FUND RAISING
To support all these programs we need
money. Fortunately Canadians are among
the most generous people in the world. Most
of the Society's money comes from the April
fund raising campaign. Hundreds of
thousands of volunteers visit their
neighbours each spring on behalf of the
Society. Additional funds are raised through
bequests, deferred giving and . "In
Memoriam" donations. Although a number
ofcorporations and other large organiza-
tions donate to the Society, the bulk of the
funds comes from you, the extraordinary
Canadian. With a few minor exceptions,
none is from government. In fact, on a per
capita basis, the Society is one of the most
succesful, single -cause, non -religious
charities in the world.
This information is brought to you with the kind co-operation of the following:
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