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Tan-free grad

With an oncologist for a mother, Jenna Simpson is always hearing about the dangers of tanning.
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Churchill CVI students were promoting a tan-free graduation Wednesday. (Jodi Lundmark, tbnewswatch.com)

With an oncologist for a mother, Jenna Simpson is always hearing about the dangers of tanning.

But while the Grade 12 Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute student knows the risks associated with tanning and skin cancer, it’s something she doesn’t think many other teenagers know.

Or they don’t take the risks seriously.

“By the time they learn the statistics or realize they are true and the risks around activities like tanning, it’s too late and that damage has already been done to your skin,” Simpson said Wednesday.

“You’ve already taken in all those potentially cancerous UV rays.”

Simpson is just one of more than 50 Churchill CVI students to pledge to be tan-free for graduation this year.

The student-run campaign is an Ontario-wide initiative to encourage graduating students to avoid indoor tanning beds and purposeful outdoor tanning.

Simpson said she signed the pledge because it’s important for teens to be aware of the health consequences of potential harmful activities like tanning.

“I think grad is a great time to raise that awareness and get people to know the risks and see that other people support that cause as well,” she said.

Churchill applied for and received a $300 grant from the Canadian Cancer Society to run the campaign and in it’s the second year, Tan-Free Grad is on its way to surpassing last year’s results.

“It was not an Ontario-wide program, so we had to instigate it ourselves,” said event organizer and Grade 12 student Alyssa Johnston.

“This year is much better than last year. We already have 52 people who have signed the pledge and last year our total overall was 26,” she added.

This year’s goal is to get 100 of the 175-member graduating class to pledge.

The issue is a personal one for Johnston. Her grandfather passed away from a recurring skin cancer.

“I want to share the risks of it with as many people as possible because I want to prevent them from having to go through what my family did,” she said.

Students who make the pledge and stick it will be eligible to win prizes.

Sixteen per cent of Grade 11 and 12 students in Ontario use tanning beds prior to graduation, according to a 2012 study by the Canadian Cancer Society. That number is an increase from seven per cent in 2006.



Jodi Lundmark

About the Author: Jodi Lundmark

Jodi Lundmark got her start as a journalist in 2006 with the Thunder Bay Source. She has been reporting for various outlets in the city since and took on the role of editor of Thunder Bay Source and assistant editor of Newswatch in October 2024.
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