Road to Healthy Skin Tour kicks off once again

NEW YORK — The Skin Cancer Foundation's Road to Healthy Skin Tour, presented by Aveeno and Rite Aid, hits the road once again in March, providing free full-body skin cancer screenings and informing the public on the latest skin cancer information.

For the fourth year in a row, the tour will travel across the country, making an estimated 85 stops in 25 states. At each stop, people can visit the 38-ft., customized RV to receive a full-body skin cancer screening by local dermatologists who have donated their services to the foundation. In the past three years, the Road to Healthy Skin Tour has traveled nearly 60,000 miles, making 250 stops across the country. Volunteer dermatologists have screened more than 10,000 people.

Educational materials that explain how to perform monthly skin checks at home and the proper ways to protect skin from the sun on a daily basis are provided to tour participants. In addition, Aveeno sunscreen samples, coupons and complimentary copies of Fitness magazine will be distributed.

"We are delighted to provide such an important public service," stated Perry Robbins, president of the Skin Cancer Foundation. "Skin cancer is the most common of all cancers, afflicting more than 2 million Americans each year, and the number is rising rapidly."

A 2010 study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that patients who delayed seeing a physician for any reason after spotting a suspicious growth had significant increases in the sizes of their tumors. More than 3,700 potential skin cancers and precancers have been discovered through the Road to Healthy Skin Tour, including 199 suspected cases of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.