This May, in conjunction with Dr. Kathy Slater and Dr. Jeff Suchniak, Nash Health Care will offer FREE skin cancer screenings on May 2 and May 5.  Reservations are required and may be made by calling 962-3466 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays.

            For more than ten years, Nash Health Care has offered FREE health screenings to members of the community, detecting stroke-level blood pressures and cancers that may have otherwise gone undiagnosed.

            According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is the most common of all cancers, and there are three basic types of skin cancer: basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer and melanoma.

            Last year, 80 people participated in the Nash Health Care skin cancer screenings, and of those 80, one was diagnosed with a possible melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Eight of the participants had a preliminary diagnosis of basal-cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer, and three participants had squamous-cell carcinoma, the second most common type of skin cancer. Eighteen participants were recommended for a biopsy, and 31 were referred to a physician for followup.

            While melanoma skin cancers account for less than 5 percent of all skin cancer cases, they are also the most deadly. Even one blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life. Those with lighter skin tones are at greater risk, and the ACS estimates the lifetime risk of getting melanoma is 1 in 50 for Caucasians, 1 in 200 for Hispanics and 1 in 1,000 for African-Americans.