 So I am really pleased to introduce to you Brian Halverson. He's a teacher in the Grand Forks Public Schools. I heard him discuss this presentation at a joint meeting we both attended about cancer prevention in North Dakota. Brian was diagnosed with melanoma in 2007 and he's been reaching out to kids for 12 years with this presentation on Sun Safety and Skin Cancer. Brian is a native North Dakotan. He is from Minnie Walken and as I said he's currently a middle school teacher in Grand Forks. And with that I introduce Brian and I thank him very much for sharing his time with us today with these very important messages. Good afternoon everyone. This is my 527th time doing this presentation and it's kind of the hardest because I don't have an audience so hopefully I don't bore you to death. So I was diagnosed 12 years ago and I'll get into my story a little more once I get started. But it kind of I reached the point when I was diagnosed and I wasn't having the best news. I kind of had the I was asking myself why me you know why was I chosen for this and then it kind of hit me that I have access to all the kids here in school in Grand Forks. So I thought I would hate for any of the kids here to go through what I went through. So I've been kind of reaching out to them over the last 12 years. I go in and talk to every seventh grader and every sophomore in town here as that's they have health in the middle school at seventh grade and then they have health again as sophomores in high school. So I hit him twice with my message hoping they take something away from it. But I continue to do this. Like I said I've done it. This will be 527. I've done it for over 11,000 kids. So I this is kind of my healing process and this is what I do to continue getting my message out there. Hope I'm doing some good and helping some kids out. So with that I will get started. A lot of this my presentation is what I give to the kids. So some things are just pointing out. I'm gonna be a little different. But as Julie mentioned if you have questions please type them in. When I do my talk I let the kids ask any questions they have as I go along. So my presentation is actually titled It Can Never Happen to Me and that was my attitude when I was in seventh grade and then when I was in the sophomore and high school and even when I was in college and I know a lot of the kids they share with me that they have the same attitude that they they don't worry about these things that they have the not me they never all these things always happen to someone else and I know even as a you adults out there I'm sure some of you maybe have that same attitude because I carried that same attitude with me till I was 38 years old. So kind of thought I was like Superman where I was invincible the kids get a kick out of that one where you know nothing bad is going to happen to me. And like I said that's why I go out and talk to the kids. I share my story, talk a little bit of my story, talk a lot about prevention. We talk about making choices and I never tell the kids what they have to do. I just hope I can give them some good words of advice and that they make better choices in me. And then the last thing which we won't be able to do is we go under a skin scope and actually they look at their face and see how much damage they've done but that's the four parts of my presentation. So where it all began 30 years ago, what job did I have where I spent all day outside? Well in small town North Dakota I was a lifeguard and that's kind of my this is kind of how I get the kids attention and drag them in with these slides telling them they get a little kick out of it and that's kind of I feel like where I grab them and start going from there. So obviously that's not me but well it could be maybe not but no it's not but that's me. That's me on the beach. So I was a lifeguard and the kids often asked well didn't you have cameras back then? We had cameras but as you guys know we didn't have the cell phones with the cameras on it so but I was a lifeguard and when I was outside I never used sunscreen and my excuse and I'm sure some of you have the same thing as I just wanted a tan and I again I never worried about skin cancer because I had that attitude that nothing bad would happen to me that I was invincible and even though it could never happen to me it did when I got skin cancer and I got melanoma and I was diagnosed with that when I was 38 years old and even at that age at 38 and I tell the kids this I still had that attitude where I didn't worry about these things so I didn't know a lot about melanoma as I diagnosed because I never paid attention to these things because it wasn't going to affect me so I had to do a Google search when I found out and the first thing I read was that the deadliest of all skin cancers and that's when reality hit me. My doctor in format developed my melanoma 20 years after I was a lifeguard and never protected myself from the sun so I tried to hit home with the younger people that the damage they're doing now can catch up with them later on in life as it did with me it took 20 years but it came back and it got me and then as I take you on my journey or share my story all this could have been avoided if I'd only worn sunscreen so I always ask my kids you know who's the one person I can blame for all this and that's me I have no one else to blame I'm no one that made the poor decisions so it all falls on my shoulders so they first found melanoma on my face and people always wonder especially kids what does what did it look like initially and that that is me I'm on the left but so I always ask people to look to see if they can see my skin cancer and that one it's a little bit harder to see so I do this next one is kind of goofy but that's the only one the only picture I had really from that time of where my cancer was and my melanoma was that little dot right on my cheek right on that on my right cheek that little dot right below my glasses that was it that was my cancer and I always tell people and the kids and you guys out there too that and actually my principal came and talked to me last night about a spot and I always tell people if you have anything questionable you need to go in and get a checked out because you never know and plus once you find out you know hopefully that it's non-cancerous that it's just a takes a load off your shoulders too but if you're ever questioning anything that you have anywhere on your body please go on and get a checked out I was doing this talk up in Park River years ago and there was a senior in the crowd and he started when I was doing this he was started thinking about a spot he had in the middle of his back and he went in he thought yeah I need to get that checked out so he went in and got it that spot checked out and it was actually melanoma and since he had gone in and they caught it so early they removed it they caught it in time and he went out he's still you know he's cancer-free living a good life so that's one of my more prouder stories from this presentation but but that was my spots that spot was there for six months and I didn't think anything about it because even like I said I was didn't worry about it there couldn't be cancer these things don't happen to me and my wife who's in the picture with me she's the one who said we need to go in and get this checked out so I went to a dermatologist and he did a biopsy he cut the top layer of it off and sent it in and that's when it came back and that's when I initially found out that I had melanoma so when they whenever you have skin cancer the first thing they got to do is cut it out or cut it off so this was after my first surgery they cut me open dug out that little spot and then stitched me up and they thought they caught it in time so they said go home and live a good life but about six weeks later I had a big lump in my neck so I went back to the to the doctor and it turned out it was a lymph node that was enlarged so I had to get that lymph node taken off because it wasn't it was just one lymph node and it was right below where my cancer was so they cut me open and plucked out that one lymph node and sent it in and unfortunately the melanoma had now spread from my face down into my neck and the doctors also thought the cancer had spread to my spine and I will be honest dealing and going through this once they started using the word spread that's when I got pretty scared and pretty concerned about what was going on here so the spreading to my spine was kind of a big deal because the doctor informed me I had a less than one in five chance to live for five more years if I'd cancer in my spine so basically he told me you know I had less than five years to live which you know as I talked to the kids was not obviously the news I wanted to hear when I first heard that news I was shocked and then I remember once the shock wore off then I got really angry and I always you know I asked the kids who do you think I was angry with wise angry with myself because my reality was when I was their age and I you know had the choice to wear sunscreen or not I didn't make the right choice and because of my poor choices now I was going to take my life and now that was hard to deal with and I I always tell the kids I'm not going to be with them nor am I going to be with any of you out there you know when it's time to be outside and it's time to apply that sunscreen so I always tell the kids if when you when you have to make that decision you know ask yourself if I don't put sunscreen on what's the worst thing that can happen to me well for me this was probably the worst thing that could happen to me and you know I tell the kids if you're okay with that make your choice but they sent me home for the night I went back the next day and they did some more testing on my spine and thankfully when they looked at my spine there was no cancer there but I share this and I tell the kids I share this with them because when you're going through something like cancer there's highs and lows and this certainly was a low point but I still had cancer on my face I still had it in my neck so all that all true here in Grand Forks they didn't want they sent me to a Mayo immediately to get treated so I had to down to Mayo Clinic and the plan was to do surgery neck dissection radiation and then immunotherapy so that was my initial treatment so first thing was surgery they cut me open from the top of my ear down through the middle of my neck and they took out all the lymph nodes because one of my lymph nodes had cancer so now they wanted to take them take out all the lymph nodes in case there's any more cancer they also took out my right parotid gland which is kind of located right below my ear because they thought the cancer could have spread into my right parotid gland the problem of taking the right parotid gland out is that produces saliva so I can't produce saliva on this side of my mouth anymore because they took that gland out so everything they took out the right parotid gland all those lymph nodes they sent it in for biopsy and everything came back cancer-free so that was that was a good day for me even though it was cut open but that was a good day for me that kind of started my clock of being cancer-free so that was October 4th 2007 so every October 4th is another year that I am cancer-free so every year I look forward to October 4th and hoping that I can keep keep going with what I'm doing so but that's what I look like I had a drain you can see that big spot open wound there there was a drain stuck in there I used to share a lot more of this story with you but I actually had a kid pass out and fall on the floor so I kind of do the abbreviated version but that's what I look like and like I tell the kids and they look at me they look at me to see what my scars look like today and they're there and I tell them it's just a reminder of the poor choices that I made and how lucky I am to still be alive and be there talking to them so that was my surgery then we did radiation so they're going to shoot radiation to where my cancer was I had to do five treatments and all I did like a Monday Thursday Monday Thursday Monday each treatment was 23 minutes but that's the machine they used I laid on the bed that's the nurses get me ready and like I tell the kids and I tell them we always tell you to have a good attitude so I tried to go in with the good attitude but things kind of would go downhill from here because they actually had to lock me to the table and you can see here where I'm actually locked to the table because they wanted they wanted me to not move so the radiation would go to the same part of my face and my neck every treatment so like I'd say I'd started with the good attitude and then everyone leaves the room and after about five ten minutes and I remember I'd get really angry and then of course I would ask the kids who was I angry at why is angry with myself because because of my poor choices growing up and even as an adult of not wearing sunscreen this is what it got me and this is something I could have been you know prevented but here I am because of the my stupid decisions and I tell the kid just another example when it's time to when you're outside and it's time to make that choice whether you want to have healthy skin or not you know if you're okay like going through this then make your choice so after radiation and I did immunotherapy which is kind of the next best big thing in cancer treatment for me I took a drug called lukine and what lukine did is it boosted my immune system that's where they get immuno from then they called it amping up it made my immune system super duper strong so the hope was when I was on lukine that if I had any cancer in my body my own body would actually fight it off and get rid of it and it must have worked because for three years I was on lukine I you know I was cancer-free and actually you know I teach school I didn't get sick once which is crazy when you think about all the sick kids that come to school but it certainly was the healthiest I was for three years but the problem with lukine is you just don't take a magic pill you got to get shots in the belly and I am definitely afraid of needles I don't do don't do well with needles at all my doctors at Mayo wanted me to give myself a shot but I said I could I'd probably pass out and I'd wake up and there'd be a needle stuck in my belly and I'd probably pass out again so my wife who's the brave one would give me my shot I'd have to get one every night so I'd get one every night for two weeks and then I'd have two weeks off where I'd get a shot in the belly I did that for three years and I jokingly tell the kids this is my wife also had a problem putting that needle through my six pack abs which you guys yeah I don't have those but yeah I did that for three years so I had 543 shots in my belly and the kids you know are just like oh that's awful you know it kind of hits home with them and then I show them that picture that was my last after I was done because you can only use the needle once so that was all the needles that I used and I saved him so I could get that picture but this is about all the you know all of my story I share I could talk for two more hours of everything I've been going through I tell the kids that this is an ongoing process even today I have to go to the dermatologist every six months and it's more common that she has to take something off of my body that's questionable and send it in and see if it has you know if it's melanoma I have pockmarks all over my body now from having biopsies but again that like I tell the kids that's just part of the process and what I you know what I put myself through because I couldn't take time to put sunscreen on so I I feel I'm very lucky I tell the kids I'm lucky to be there so time to get busy living so we talk about prevention and sunscreen so I time I asked this is where the kids I ask them you know what are your feelings and sunscreen I it'd be really interesting to hear what some of you as adults think about sunscreen because the kids have all the excuses that I had didn't have time it's sticky it smells I didn't think it was that importance didn't know that much about sunscreen I just want that nice looking tan that's usually the high school girls of course that are saying that but those are all the excuses that I would add I'm hoping you guys don't have that out there but what should you look for in each bottle of sunscreen well we talked about SPF which is Sun Protection Factor but the most important thing I try to hit home is the numbers because the numbers will tell you how much of the UV rays are blocked so an SPF of 20 will block 93% of those rays SPF of 30 will block 97 and anything 50 to 100 will block 99% of the Sun's UV rays so just to let you guys know too that a 50 SPF is the same as a 100 and we talk a little bit about marketing and why there's different numbers there but the main thing that they do is the higher the number they can just charge you more money at the store to pay for it so I tell them if they have anything 15 above they're doing great and even though I know this this will tell you guys a little bit about me even though I know this because I've done the research I when I go to the store I still buy the 100 because I'm like well it's got to be better but you know I just kick myself because I just spend the extra money what I don't need to but never use a sunscreen oh I'm sorry sunscreen can range from one to 100 never use a sunscreen below 30 that's the lowest you want to go so if you have a 10 15 or 20 that really doesn't you know doesn't do as much as what you can do with some higher so please try to always have 30 or higher okay here's the spray and we I talked to the kids about what they prefer the spray or the cream this spray here is a 30 that's the lowest they want to go here's a cream that's a 50 and I feel there's I I because I try a little bit of everything when I see something out there so I basically tried them all and the creams really have gotten a lot better they have I mean if you look back to when I was younger some of those things we love the sunscreen was absolutely horrible but the creams have gotten a lot better when I go outside I put the creams on my face and my ear in my neck I use that and then I use the spray on the rest of my body one thing that's important to know is what if you're using the spray make sure you rub it in because it doesn't if you just spray it on and don't rub it in it doesn't activate so spray it on thoroughly I've watched people put sunscreen on before where they just do like a light mist and then they're done no you got to spray it on thoroughly and rub it in but this is my sunscreen a choice I like Neutrogena this one's a hundred plus so obviously it must be really good but yeah Neutrogena because it's not sticky it's not oily it's not greasy so that's that's the one I prefer to use and I've tried you know a lot of the sprays like the banana boat I've tried the target off-brand which is cheaper and those have all worked for me too but this is just the one that I prefer to use that's me on the beach and it's time to reapply and I tell the kids because one of the biggest things that people have for not wearing a sunscreen is they just don't have the time well I can do my legs my arm my face in under two minutes and that to me to have healthy skin that's not a big chunk of your time out of the day so I can always equate it to brushing your teeth that everyone brushes their teeth and because they want to have healthy teeth and everyone is just in the habit of brushing your teeth that's what they do so I tell the kids you just need to get in the habit of applying your sunscreen and once you get in that habit then it's just something you do excuse me now this day I did take a little bit longer because I had my sandals on so I had to get between the toes and the feet so that does take a little bit longer and another thing I point out to the kids too is when I'm outside I always have a hat on because I have lost a lot of a lot of hair that's just from being a middle school teacher but I tell the kids and they don't believe me but I say some of you are going to lose that hair you need to protect that scalp when you're outside so all my pitches when I'm outside I will be wearing a hat because I got to protect my scalp I don't want to burn my scalp so majority of people only apply 25 to 50 percent of the recommended amount of sunscreen so we're hardly putting enough on so what what does that mean when the bottle will tell you to apply frequently that's what it'll tell you well this is what you got to do if you want healthy skin if you don't want those wrinkles if you don't want those age spots if you want to be at a lower risk for skin cancer this is what you need to do apply 15 minutes before you go out into the sun as it needs to absorb into your skin so when I'm teaching like my first class is at nine for if it's nice enough to go out I always put my sunscreen on at 845 and then if you're outside for a long time you should reapply every two hours which like I said I tell the kids you just got to get in the habit of you know putting it on and getting out there and and just make it a habit and then it should be no big deal so 15 minutes before you're outside and then every two hours reapply after swimming sweating or tolling because some of it will wipe off or wear off I would parts do people forget to protect their nose their ears their feet and then with kids it's always their shoulders I know for adults it's always there a lot of them people burn their ears because they maybe wear ball caps outside and their ears are sticking outside of it so they don't protect their ears but those are the four things Sun is the strongest from 10 until 4 so I tell the kids make sure you have your sunscreen on you can sit in the shade I wear long sleeves if I'm out golfing or whatever to protect my arms I always have the hat on you can get clothing now it's pretty common to get summer clothes like a target that has SPF in it girls can get makeup they can get you know lip balm that is SPF so there's a lot of things you can do besides sunscreen because the Sun causes over 90% of the damage we do to our skin which as I tell the kids will lead to wrinkles and of course when you talk into a seventh grader that doesn't mean much but I tell them one day they're gonna wake up and look in the mirror and there will be wrinkles there and the same thing with age spots or liver spots that's just from sun damage from people not wearing their sunscreen and of course skin cancers okay because I tell them they don't want to end up looking like that hopefully so I know that's not very common here in North Dakota that's more so probably down south where they're outside 12 months out of the year but the kids always get a big kick out of that one how gross it is or that or that one you can see the arm all the wrinkles on the arm there's some damage there's the age spots I tell them about and they're usually like oh yeah my grandma crap I has that or that or on the arm or hand that's you know that's actually skin cancer on the face thankfully mine didn't look like that and this is I just tell them here wherever you have skin you can get skin cancer so on the island and of course they had to cut it out or cut it off just like here here's a great example of a older gentleman that's lost a lot of hair so what was exposed to the Sun was the scalp looks like you didn't protect it or that one okay that's actually an untreated melanoma but I don't know the story behind that so when I was decided to do this talk I actually got to meet with the head of the melanoma department at Mayo Clinic so he was like the big man on campus and he told me the one thing that I really have to hit home especially with high school girls is to stay out of the tanning bed because he said that's the absolute absolutely worst thing you can do and I tell the kids right now I think it's 18 states where it's illegal for minors to use a tanning bed one of those states is Minnesota so I tell them if they were to cross the river and go use a tanning bed after school they'd be breaking the law North Dakota you just have to be 16 and you need your parents permission hopefully they won't give that permission but I'm hoping North Dakota will eventually just outlaw you know for minors hopefully I know there's entire countries that like Brazil and Australia I think is one the entire country is just outlawed it for everyone banned it because that's how dangerous they are so using a tanning bed once a month for only 10 minutes increases your chances of developing skin cancer 75 percent so that's not ten minutes a day or ten minutes a week that's ten minutes a month so so I I don't know how many of you out there have a younger dodger younger daughters but hopefully you don't let them keep them out of the tanning beds here's Tony if anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in a tanning bed here you go so there's like a before and after so she was a tanning bed user and when I my dermatologist that male told me that almost every teenage girl she sees that a skin cancer been using a tanning bed so they they're seeing more and more teenage girls because that's who's using the tanning beds and when I talk to them like when I go to the high schools here up to the sophomore classes I have seen a decrease in tanning bed usage but there's still are some that do and they always have some excuse like you know I only used it six times for a trip or I only used it five times for homecoming well it doesn't matter here's a true story that I have Brian you'll not know who I am but I work with a friend of yours 12 years ago I lost my wife to Melanoma it was caused by seven sessions in the tanning bed so she would have a tan for a trip we were taking well needless to say 11 years later she had cancer and the first question that the oncologist asked her was have you ever used a tanning bed he then told her it was the cause of her cancer anyway I applaud you and the education you're giving to others about the dangers of tanning and I will do the same until I join Lynn I confront everyone that looks like they are going to use a tanning bed and tell them of Lynn's two and a half year battle she was a real trooper hers was discovered too late so this is true story from Roger in Wyoming his wife used a tanning bed seven times and it took her life so she did the damage and her cancer came back a letter came 11 years later mine took 20 years hers took 11 and then I tell the kids I think of someone that they care about a lot a mom a sister aunt best friend and how hard it would be to watch them fight for two and a half years and lose that battle because of a stupid tanning bed and that is a picture of Lynn with her family and the one that bothers me and I tell the kids this is the one that bothers me is that one because that's the family on vacation and who's missing from vacation well Lynn mom well where's your mom well mom passed away well what happened well mom used a tanning bed and it took her life so I tell the kids think about how hard that'd be to deal with to lose your mom or your wife because of a stupid tanning bed okay and then I have a video here that shows a girl getting into a tanning bed I can't play it but the tanning bed turns into a coffin and when I did the research for this there are a lot of websites that actually called tanning beds I call them death beds because they're so dangerous so why do you know what can you do beside if you want to get a little color and I get that but there's spray tans and there's tanning with lotions and why are these safe because there's no UV rays like I said I started doing this talk about 12 years ago and about six years ago the girls at the high schools both high schools here in town I have not had a complaint on spray tans in the last six years and they are getting to be more popular so something changed with the product or whatever but to keep the high school girls happy for the last six years that's pretty pretty good for those of you that have teenagers but they've said yeah I've used a spray tan they work great they don't turn me orange or not runny those are some of the excuses so something changed about five six years ago and I've heard nothing but positives with the spray tanning the tanning with lotions that just recently especially at one of the high schools in town here has gotten to be pretty popular where the girls have told me they've done that and it works and the best thing about both these is there's there's no UV rays they're not damaging your skin okay so here's I show them what a tanning spray when you go to get the spray tan looks like you stand in the booth and gives you a little little color a little before and after before and after and I tell the girls if they get that spray tan like here the wind will always blow through their hair like the girl on the right so and before after after the first shower and and you know the colors not there forever I tell them but if you need it for homecoming or wedding or whatever you have going on you have it and you haven't damaged your skin there's a bronzer you can rub on and there's one you can spray on so thoughts on tanning skin cancer can take up to 20 years to develop trust me I know one blistering sunburn in your childhood more than doubles your chances of developing melanoma later on in life so I don't know how many out there of you that that would apply to but in a classroom typically of 15 kids I maybe have five three to five that have had a sunburn so bad it blistered so those are the kids where they've doubled their chances of developing melanoma later on in life and of course we talked about how the reason that happened is because they weren't wearing their sunscreen so then I ask them how often do you think I burned when I was your age and of course they all think that I burned a lot but I never burned ever so my number one reason and I can still hear me telling my mom why I don't need to wear sunscreen is because I don't burn so those of you that still don't wear your sunscreen because you say I never burn it doesn't matter you're still damaging your skin you're still out in the sun you're still you know that damages were caught up to me down the road so it doesn't have a lot to do with whether you're burned or not so that was my excuse and it was a terrible one and then I show them some pictures of the blisters like on the foot and ear and arm this was actually one of my students that came to school with that little lovely thing one day a little redhead and then we talk about once you burn or blister then you're going to peel which is not very appealing sorry seventh graders think that one's funny but and then a new thing I've kind of added in my into my presentation is when you are outside make sure you have your sunglasses on I found out that Mel Noman eyes on the rise because people aren't protecting your eyes my wife's best friend just lost her sister-in-law she got Mel Noman out in her eye and then it took her life so I tell the kids make sure that you wear your sunglasses make sure they block UV rays too so you need it because obviously we can't put sunscreen on her eyes so those of you outside for a good portion of the day got to protect those eyeballs without protection you're not invincible here's James I think are worried later on in life about skin cancer but not right now and that was my attitude at age 20 that was my attitude at age 16 that was my attitude at age 12 and look where it got me okay and I don't I tell the kids I'm not here to make them worry but I want them to be aware that the damage they're doing now can catch up with them later on in life or Marcy I've not thought about getting skin cancer I just want a tan and that is exactly what I would have said at that age the rate for melanoma is increasing faster than the rate of any other cancer and why is that well because right now having a tan is beautiful and again it's all about perception what you think looks good but of course when these kids turn the TV on and they see you know the tan right now is in talk about this girl on the right think she was a tanning bed user because she's got the raccoon eyes you can kind of see how it's white so she's probably in the tanning bed so that was not healthy and here we have natural skin color and I just tell kids your natural skin color and I truly believe this I think is just fine or maybe you're into that or that or that I don't know if you guys know who tan mom but that's tan mom and we talk about you know does this look good he's smiling but he wakes when he wakes up covered in blisters I don't think he's gonna be too happy and this guy we have to give him credit he did put sunscreen on because you can see where his fingers were reaching in his back but he obviously missed a big chunk there but he tried do you think that being tan makes you look healthier and I in my honest opinion to me it it doesn't matter you know here's a before and after like I tell the kids I think natural skin colors just fine same way with this young lady but of course trying to tell a 16-year-old girl that does could be next to impossible but the problem with people who think a tan is healthy is is not healthy okay what is a tan a tan does not indicate good health it is a response to injury skin cells signal that they're damaged by producing melanin and causing the darker color so basically it's your body telling you you've injured your body and I compare it that makes sense to the kids but I compare it to getting a black and blue mark so I when I see a kid that school that maybe comes back from Florida whatever and you can tell they got darker skin I tell them you've damaged your skin there's nothing healthy about it okay and then I got a couple of videos here that I show on this is the point where we're going to the skin scope so I give an example on the left is what you see with the naked eye and on the right is what you see in the skin scope because the problem is is the damage that everyone does outside you can't see it to the naked eye I mean the damage is there I got a great video I just can't play it for you here's a 17-year-old on the left that's the naked eye if you look around the bridge of her nose you can see all those dark spots that's all sun damage and of course as we get older here a 64-year-old on the bottom on the right there look at all that sun damage so she's a higher risk you know for skin cancer and here's two examples and of course when I have my kids going the skin scope and look none of them look like this but I tell them especially you know at this age if they're already starting to see some spots and they continue or go down the road this is this could be them you know higher you know higher risk for skin cancer wrinkles age spots this is what they're added to so here's the naked eye on the left and what you see in the skin scope on the right and there too and that's kind of what it looks like inside the skin scope and I give them directions and they go in and take a look and then when they come out we talk about what they saw the cool thing is is when I do it for them in seventh grade I tell them to remember what they look like because I will see them again as sophomores and if you could see some of the expressions on their face when they come out of sophomores because they realize that they've gotten a lot worse it's kind of a shock to their system and I hope that it's waking them up that they need to get in the habit of protecting your skin so that is all I have are there any questions Julie or where are we at all right well we've had a little discussion going on someone asked about basically they are allergic to the sunscreens yeah and Barrel said I've had good luck with Neutrogena hypoallergenic lotions and lip balm and Estee Lauder also makes lip gloss and is hypoallergenic and then made the recommendation to check with a dermatologist that's what I tell the kids because it's kids are hardly to sunscreen your dermatologist the problem we run into at the dermatologist especially in Grand Forks here is they're so busy it's so impossible to get in to see them I'm sure some of you have run into that same problem so and I wanted to just make a point again this is Julie garden Robinson I'm a food and nutrition specialist now that you've all heard about this please share this information with your kids or grandkids or spouse or whoever because this is important information to get out to the public and we do have toolkits around the state with Sun Safety information we have about six or eight derma scams like Brian described and you know we want to get this information out to especially gardeners and children outdoor workers so if you are enthusiastic and you want to help us we would gladly welcome your help which could even be putting up some of the poster displays that we have available and maybe Brian would even visit your town what do you think Brian well well in this part of the state I've been to yeah I've been to well Halla Drayton Thompson I've been to a lot of schools drove up to Devils Lake one time so if we can get it I drove out to Minot last summer so if we can get it to work with my school schedule whatever I am open like I said this is part of my healing processes and this is what I'm going to do so I'm more than happy to help out in any way yeah you'll never know the big difference that you've made probably I have another question has anyone heard about organic sunscreens have you looked into that at all yeah actually I was out in Missoula last summer and I was at a farmers market and they had some there and I bought it and it worked it was it was actually pretty nice I bought a talcum and then I also bought a roll on and they both work great the problem is in Grand Forks here I haven't been able to find it anywhere but I did use it I did try it and it worked great and it wasn't oily it wasn't sticky or anything so I have tried it I wasn't pressed Jennifer has a question or a comment she says I've seen sunscreen that has vitamin D in it which seems like a good idea since sunscreen blocks the ability to produce vitamin D and skin also antioxidants help prevent damage internally do you believe nutrition is a factor well I'll make a first comment and Brian because I'm a nutrition specialist I don't really believe that rubbing vitamins on your skin is going to do as much good as consuming foods with vitamin D in them so I haven't looked into that one but I would say up your your vitamin D and your diet through milk fortified cereals you know tuna or some of the main eggs have vitamin D haven't read much about spreading it on your body I just don't think it would be a absorb very well and hurt anything about that Brian yeah actually everything I've heard as far as vitamin D is just your normal like going outside in the sun every day just whatever your routine is is generally enough is what I've been told so in this part of the country we tend to be deficient in the winter because we're covering all our skin but yeah summer you're you're good and it only takes about the 10 minutes of sun exposure so not a lot we do have a I put a link in the in the chat we have a couple of websites one's called health wise for guys and once health wise for women and we do have some handouts about Sun safety on those and again we appreciate any help that all of you listening can do to be help us get this message out and I really thank Brian for all his efforts because it is really a huge issue with the teenage girls in particular and the sunbeds and some of these things so I really appreciate all your work because I have a teenage daughter myself well one of the things that I and I'm starting to hear more and more of it but one of the things I love is when I talk to him about you know what are their feelings on sunscreen and so many of the kids now I just ask him if they wear their sunscreen and a lot you know they are telling me they are and I always ask them are you wearing it because you want to or because your mom's telling you and a lot of times I'm hearing it's well my mom makes me wear it every time I go out so for all you parents out there keep it up and good job Amy has a question can you get skin cancer from sitting by a window or is there any protection through the glass see I've heard it both ways I've heard that like because I teach drivers Ed in the summer so I've heard that it will block we raise and then I've heard otherwise so I don't have an answer for that from my life my understanding is the glasses the glass will block the UV rays but don't quote me on that yeah I've I've also read it yeah read it both ways but the main things I've read is that it it isn't protective unless it was designed to be protective you know to have some skirts you know something into it yeah so that's why we do see some people who say are in a tractor get you know all sunburned on the side of the face that faces out right all right we get all kinds of kudos so great information telling teens this is something you're a control of thanks for sharing and much health to you so they're thanking you a lot and we'll take any final questions here's what is a comment I think the new thought is that you can get it the number of cancer is higher for the right arms of people or left arm she said whoops I suppose whatever side of the car you're on is gonna be the one that's affected and I've heard that you know and a lot of people will have the window open and have their arm hanging out so that's something to think about and Jennifer says thanks for sharing your message glad you are a survivor so any last questions before we thank Brian profusely for sharing his his message and his purpose in life I think here so I really thank you Brian this is great well I hope I didn't bore you everyone out there too much I appreciate your time I have had I'm at my workplace now and a lot of people have walked by wondering why I'm talking looks but I appreciate everyone listening and I hope I made a difference in some ways so thank you yes thank you and like all of the other webinars this one will be archived on our field to fork website so if you know someone who would benefit from watching this maybe you're the teenager in your house or 4-H group or young gardener group it will be up very soon so thanks to all of you I hope that you will join us again next week and you can hear about butterfly gardens but you're gonna need a hat and sunscreen if you're gonna be gardening so thanks a lot and thanks again Brian yep thank you