Penrith golfers are being urged to make sun safety a priority.
Joining over 70 other golf clubs across the state, Penrith Golf Club has come on board with Cancer Council NSW to take part in the skin cancer prevention program, ‘Improve your Long Game’.
It aims to remind golfers, who spend plenty of time in the sun, to ‘Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide’.
Cancer Council NSW community programs coordinator, Natalia Atcha said that the main focus of the campaign was to create more awareness about sun safety for golfers.
“The idea of it is to really have more of a presence and to talk to golfers about the importance of covering up, so we supply golfers with tubes of sunscreen as well as provide informative signage to be put around the club,” she said.
“We are just wanting men to talk about it between themselves and to encourage each other to get out of the sun.”
With men over the age of 40 in NSW being 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with melanoma, General Manager of Penrith Golf Club, Brendon Kop said the campaign acted as a great reminder for golfers.
“Programs such as Cancer Council’s ‘Improve Your Long Game’ are fantastic to help remind members about taking care of themselves while in the sun,” he said.
Golfers are urged to slip on protective clothing, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat, seek shade and slide on sunglasses.
In its third year, Ms Atcha said that the campaign had so far been a resounding success.
“It’s good as older golfers are acting as role models for the younger ones. It’s also good to be able to show that the money raised from Penrith Relay For Life is going back into the community,” she said.
Lauren Suttie is the Weekender’s General & Community News journalist.
