Community
20 September, 2024
Great response for skin checks
CAMPERDOWN Lions Club hosted the Skin Cancer Awareness unit on Saturday, September 14 and Sunday, September 15, with the service fully booked out in advance.
The unit is a joint project between the Lions of Victoria Cancer Foundation and Camperdown Lions Club and provides access to skin checks in areas screening clinics are not readily available.
The hosting club arranges a suitable location, accommodation and meals for the visiting screening staff, takes bookings, catering, support and administration.
The unit’s five staff (all Lions club members and volunteers) included the truck driver, demoscopists and a support worker.
Lions Skin Cancer van program leader Maree Belyea said the club was “very pleased” with how the program went over the weekend.
“We were fortunate that we hired the Guide Hall - it worked out really well because we had a sheltered area where people could wait inside with a fire going and be warm,” she said.
“The Guide Hall was used and proved to be an excellent location, especially due to inclement weather.
“All the team were really pleased with the set-up and the service we gave.
“We were able to provide them with a quiet area to have their breaks and lunch in the hall.
“Overall, I don’t think there was anything we would’ve changed.”
Over the two days, the three qualified demoscopists conducted a total of 115 checks in the purpose-built van consisting of three inspection rooms.
Of the 115 checked, there were 32 (28 per cent) referred to their health professionals – none of the referrals related to life-threatening lesions.
Ms Belyea said the Lions club were overwhelmed with requests once bookings opened on August 2.
“We were booked out three weeks in advance,” she said.
“We had quite a few on waitlists, but I couldn’t keep adding them to the waitlist because there was no chance of fitting them in.
“On Sunday, we had more younger people than we did last time, like young farmers that are coming to check because they’re out in the sun more.
“There was quite a good representation of these right through to elderly people.”
This was the second visit to Camperdown for the service, the first being in January 2022.
The truck and van are owned by the Lions Clubs of Victoria but has annual running costs of around $120,000.
Camperdown Lions presented a cheque for $500 towards this cost and $283 was donated by appreciative members of the public.
The service has completed close to 11,000 skin checks in the year to date
“For the year to date, they said they had 47 overall that were life-threatening,” Ms Belyea said.
“It’s a good service and it saves people money – we had one lady there that said she went to have hers done at a place where you pay, and it cost her $400.
“The whole thing was set up to encourage people in the areas where the testing sites are not available to have their skin checked.
“Providing this free service ensures many more people are checked and a saving of at least $28,000 to our local community.”
Corangamite Shire assisted Lions with a community grant to cover the hall hire, accommodation and meal costs incurred during the visit.
Ms Belyea said members of the Lions club also contributed to the success of the visit.
“There were quite a lot of our members involved over the weekend,” she said.
“We had a roster of check-in staff, a roster for preparing and serving the morning teas, afternoon teas and lunches, and we hosted the workers at the Hampden Hotel.
“We believe this is one of our better services to the community that we have.
“It’s also quite social as well – you spend quite a lot of time chatting to those that come through.
“We can do certain things where we fundraise, and you give money for this or that, but this is doing something that benefits the local community and district.”
Due to the high demand for hosting’s of the Lions V Districts Mobile Skin Check and Awareness Unit, the unit is not expected to return to south-west Victoria until 2026.