What started as a young girl’s vision for a school project has turned into a full-fledged operation to raise awareness and provide education about skin cancer. ‘Operation: Save Your Skin’, the brainchild of Paris High junior, Shikha Prakash, will hold its second annual skin cancer screening at Texas Oncology-Paris tomorrow, March 5th.
The event is completely free and open to the public. Certified oncology personnel will take skin screenings of individuals from 4:30-6:30 p.m. No appointments are necessary; ‘walk-ins’ are preferred.
Miss Prakash started ‘Operation: Save Your Skin’ in December of 2013 as an independent Future Problem Solvers project. After the success she’s seen with her different events, especially the free screenings, which she’s held in Paris and Bogata, Prakash has decided to continue the mission of educating about the dangers of skin cancer, as well as provide tips and suggestions to be preventative.
She has given presentations to the Rotary Clubs, held skin cancer screenings in Paris and Bogata, provides educational resources to local school districts and provided all the first graders at Aiken Elementary with free sun hats during a presentation there in May of last year. She also held a 5K ‘color run’ on the Trail de Paris during Melanoma Awareness Month in 2014, which saw great success.
Skin screenings are important because it is the first step to catching skin cancer before it becomes more of a problem to treat. If you have concern or any questions about skin cancer, feel free to stop by Texas Oncology-Paris tomorrow and let Prakash and the oncology professionals help you ‘Save Your Skin’.