For years Claire and Cass were by my side for awareness events and opportunities when we would share our story about how I was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, and how it went from there for our family. Especially with Save Your Skin, we did many video and print advocacy pieces, often making the trip from Meaford to Toronto to meet with journalists and crews, SYSF staff, the La Roche-Posay team - anyone who would listen, really! - to raise the profile of skin cancer and the importance of early detection. The three of us were a melanoma-awareness-posse! And we had some great media hits in addition to my guest blogging for HuffPost, Her Magazine, Yahoo Canada, and others.
Claire and I on CTV News - Melanoma Monday, May 2016
Well... fast forward to the last two days - and Cass is now on CTV News as well! I've woken up at balls a.m. (stay tuned for more on my move from the centre of the universe Eastern Standard Time to Beautiful British Columbia Pacific Time LOL) to hold interviews with a couple of lovely media providers in Ontario to speak about the Sty-Lives (Styling Hair & Saving Lives) program. And Cass, recently graduated from Marca College of Hair and Esthetics and now working at a swanky salon in downtown Toronto, jumped on board to help share the message.
Early Monday morning we bravely prepared for a zoom interview together with two Physicians on CTV News Sudbury, and I'm proud to say Cass nailed it! She has a very firm grip on how to be successful in her chosen vocation and she works toward that goal every day, while maintaining her beliefs and bringing her personal experience to the job as well. Cass is an advisor on the Sty-Lives initiative, helping us shape it to be relevant to the Hair Professionals perspective. Of course she is also passionate about the program as it brings full circle our family's desire to increase melanoma skin cancer awareness.
Enough of my talking about it - how about I just show you the interview recording! :-) Click here to watch:
The written article is also located at this link, though the video at the top hasn't yet been updated to our interview (at the time of this blog posting). An excerpt:
Toronto hairstylist Cassandra Richardson joined the initiative for a very personal reason, her mom is a skin cancer survivor. Richardson said she’s ready to help anyone who sits in her chair.
"I’m very passionate about prevention and early detection so this really means a lot to me in the fact that you can absolutely change someone’s life by simply doing your job," she said.
"It’s so easy with the instructional video that Miranda sent. Like it’s so easy to tell someone that 'you have a spot on your head, you should get checked out.' It doesn’t have to involve anything more than that. Just that simple step of telling that person that it exists is just one step closer to saving their life."
Adding, "It’s just so easy. There’s just no excuse not to do it as a hairstylist."
Atta girl Cass! #ProudMomma
In addition to the above coverage, Global News Radio 640 Toronto picked up the story on Tuesday, and I had the privilege of speaking with Kelly Cutrara about Sty-Lives and skin cancer detection. Check it out here:
The recent story of hockey fan and medical student Nadia Popovichi who alerted a Vancouver Canucks equipment manager about a cancerous mole she spotted on his neck while at a game has gone viral and is helping to highlight the importance of early detection.
I'd like to say thanks to these media networks for sharing news of the Sty-Lives program, and I am happy to report that registration from hair salons across the country is growing very rapidly! I'll keep you updated on the progress, and in the meantime please feel free to share this link and video with your Hairstylist or Barber:
Thank You!
The experience Natalie and her girls have shared, and now the difference this family is making by helping others become aware of the danger of ignoring changes in skin conditions, makes this gramma very proud.
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