“Take It to The Brim” Wellness Campaign Aims to Encourage Golf Community and Especially Older Golfers to Adopt UV Protective Wide Brim Hats, UV400 Sunglasses and Sleeve Extenders
San Juan Capistrano, CA. – We golfers love to wear baseball caps for reasons of style and perceived protection against the sun. But as we age the effects of the sun have a cumulative toll, making us mature guys and gals more susceptible to damaged skin, skin cancer and its more deadly cousin, melanoma.
Fore! Sixty (www.foresixty.com) is launching a multi-dimensional wellness campaign called “Take It to The Brim” with the express mission of building awareness among the ten million North American golfers sixty and over, on the dangers of skin cancer and melanoma and the easiest preventative measures. The campaign includes published blogs on the Fore! Sixty site, a podcast interview on the dangers of skin cancers and an informational video by the Medical Director of the American Melanoma Foundation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqqaM92dQFI.
The numbers are jarring. According to The American Melanoma Foundation more Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer every year than ALL OTHER CANCERS COMBINED. By age 70, one in five Americans will develop skin cancer. Seven out of eight cases of skin cancer including melanoma are a direct result of ultraviolet rays from the sun. Indeed the research linking sun damage to skin cancer shows a greater causal relationship than even smoking to lung cancer.
The majority of people who do develop melanoma are white men over age fifty five. Men tend to spend more time outdoors and are typically more lackadaisical about protecting their skin than women. As a result males are three times more likely to die from melanoma than women by the time they reach their eighties.
“Take It to the Brim” is about raising awareness, changing behavior and encouraging golfers sixty and over who often wear baseball caps during a four or five hour round of golf, to switch their headwear to a UV protective wide brim hat. While wearing a baseball cap is better than going hatless, most are not made with protective UPF50 fabric that protects against the sun’s UV rays and do not protect prominent areas such as the neck, ears, nose, cheeks and chin that can be particularly susceptible to skin cancers. While use of sunscreen is important, sunscreen lasts for only nine holes or so and many golfers are resistant to getting grease on their hands and golf grips. UPF50 wide brim hats are particularly important from April to October during prime sun time of 10am – 4pm, even during a cloudy day which still receives up to 80% of the ultraviolet light of a sunny day.
According to Dr. Mona Mohid the Medical Director at The American Melanoma Foundation “The incidence of skin cancers and melanoma are rapidly growing and older golfers are in the center of the storm. Too many believe that instead of prevention they can go to the dermatologist every six months but that’s an expensive, painful and interim remedial approach. Skin cancer and melanoma are often preventable with the proper clothing and habits”.
In addition to UPF 50 wide brim hats, Fore! Sixty is also introducing UV400, polarized classic black sunglasses on its site with a special “Buy One, Get One Free Offer” of just $19.95 through May 31. Over half of adults will develop cataracts by age 80 and damage from the sun’s ultraviolet rays are a key contributor. Here again older golfers who spend four or five hours under the glaring sun are at especially high risk.
The campaign is personal to Fore! Sixty as both co-founder James Plumb and its Hall of Fame golf pro advisor Mike Wydra have had significant bouts with the disease. Jim recently interviewed Coach Wydra on his travails with skin cancer and personal frustrations in not taking more sensible preventative steps. The podcast is available under Fore! Sixty golf at all the major platforms including Apple, Google, Stitcher and Spotify. There is more information on skin cancer and melanoma at the AMF website at melanomafoundation.org.
Fore! Sixty is a one-of-a-kind online clubhouse exclusively tailored for the unique needs of golfers sixty and over. Our mission is to inform, educate and motivate golfers sixty and over on the best ways to counteract the compromises of age in order to optimize their scores and enjoyment of their favorite pastime. Interested parties on the “Take It to The Brim” can contact Jim Plumb at jim@foresixty.com
The American Melanoma Foundation or AMF was founded in Southern California in 1990 by a group of melanoma patients and their relatives who believed in the importance and ever-growing need for support of specific research for new treatment approaches in melanoma, one of the most serious of all cancers. The foundation is a member of the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Ralph Fascitelli
(206) 369-2612
Ralph@foresixty.com
