Coalition Activities
Choose Your Cover Returns to Monmouth County
On June 25, 2011, Choose Your Cover returned to Monmouth County for another successful day of sun safety and skin cancer screening!
On June 25, 2011 the Monmouth Cancer Coalition offered skin cancer screenings to adults at six beaches in Monmouth County. "Choose Your Cover," now in its third year, combines the collected expertise of all five Monmouth County medical centers, two health departments and six municipalities to fight skin cancer where risks are perhaps the greatest - at the beach. Click here to view photos of last year's event; 2011 event photos to be released soon.
"Choose Your Cover" began in 2008 at three Ocean County beaches under the auspices of the Ocean County Cancer Coalition when over 500 people received a skin cancer screening exam. In 2009, all four New Jersey shoreline counties participated in this highly successful event, screening nearly 2,000.
This year clinical teams were provided by: Bayshore Community Hospital, CentraState Hospital, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Monmouth Medical Center, Red Bank Radiology, and Riverview Medical Center. Thanks to the generous support of these teams, Coalition and community volunteers, 495 people were screened and many more recieved sun safety educational materials and free sunscreen samples.
The purpose of "Choose Your Cover" is to raise awareness about the risks of skin cancer due to sun exposure. The goal is supported by the 2008-2012 New Jersey Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan. In New Jersey and Monmouth County, melanoma is one of the fastest growing cancers. In Monmouth County, melanoma incidence rates are third highest in the state and, contrary to most cancer types, have been increasing dramatically in recent years.
"New Jersey has a significantly higher risk of skin cancer than other states, and Monmouth County is higher than the average of New Jersey counties," said Arnold M. Baskies, M.D. and Chair of the Task Force on Cancer Prevention, Early Detection and Treatment in New Jersey and creator of Choose Your Cover. "We believe that sun safety can make a big difference and that education about skin cancer is key to saving lives."
Facts about skin cancer:
- Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States and New Jersey.
- Melanoma is an epidemic. In the United States, incidence rates are rising approximately 4% annually among persons age15 to 34 and 9% of those over age 65.
- One person dies every hour from melanoma; almost 70,000 Americans will be diagnosed and 8,700 will die from the disease this year.
- Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in men and sixth most common in women.
- In Monmouth County, incidence rates of melanoma are third highest in the state; mortality rates are greater than ten percent higher than the statewide average.
The program was sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Office of Cancer Control and Prevention and the Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey as grant recipient. Monmouth Cancer Coalition is a volunteer organization comprised of representatives from the health and human service communities, education, business, faith-based organizations and the general public. Its mission is to increase awareness, education and access to cancer screening and care through developing and sustaining collaborative relationships within the community for the purpose of reducing cancer morbidity and mortality in Monmouth County.
Asbury Park Beach
Boardwalk at First and Ocean Avenues
Asbury Park, NJ
Long Branch Beach
Boardwalk at the Great Lawn
Ocean Avenue
Long Branch, NJ
Belmar Beach
The Taylor Pavilion
Boardwalk at Fifth and Ocean Avenues
Belmar, NJ
Highlands Recreation Center Beach
Robert D. Wilson Memorial Community Center &
Snug Harbor Beach
22 Snug Harbor Avenue
Highlands, NJ
Sea Bright Boro Beach
Public Beach Area,
1097 Ocean Avenue
Sea Bright Boro, NJ
Bradley Beach
Boardwalk at LaReine and Ocean Avenues
Bradley Beach, NJ
For more information about "Choose Your Cover" and the Monmouth Cancer Coalition, visit www.facebook.com/monmouthcancercoalition, the Choose Your Cover Facebook event, or contact the Coordinator at 732-418-3210 or pvirga@newsolutionsinc.com