Woman working to have sunscreenstations set upthroughout Valleyto spare othersfrom same fate

By KEITH LACEYSpecial to The Daily Courier

Alocal woman who losther son to skin cancerthree years ago is on amission to introduce

sunscreen stations at all beaches,parks and as many other publicplaces as possible across theOkanagan.

Karen Wells is the foundingdirector of Morgan’s Mole Patrol,a pending non-profit foundationshe started in memory of her sonMorgan, who died at age 33 inDecember 2016 from melanoma, adeadly form of skin cancer.

Wells said her goal is simple.She is working in tandem withthe provincial Save Your Skinorganization from Vancouver andhopes to have portable sunscreenstations in as many public placesas possible in the Okanagan andacross the province.

As a pilot project this summer,Wells is working to officiallyintroduce sunscreen stations atGyro Beach, the Kelowna Golfand Country Club, and at theKelowna Visitor Centre.

Melanoma is one of the fastestgrowing cancers in NorthAmerica, surpassing lung andbreast cancer, and just one blis-tering sunburn in childhood oradolescence more than doublesthe odds of developing the dis-ease later in life, said Wells.

“We really need this for ourchildren and future generations,”said Wells, who broke into tearsseveral times while recalling herson’s death and telling of herefforts to help others and preventthem from having to endure thesame heartbreak and pain.

Her son went from seeminglyhealthy to seriously ill in a mat-ter of months, and it’s difficult tobelieve a small mole led to such

tragic consequences.“He had a mole on his back and

went to his family doctor and thedoctor said it looked benign,” shesaid. “It was frozen with liquidnitrogen and covered with aBand-Aid. He came home andhigh-fived me and said every-thing was fine.”

It wasn’t.He returned to the doctor sev-

eral months later and discovereda cancerous melanoma hadspread to many parts of his body.

He died several weeks later,leaving behind a wife and twoyoung sons, one of whom wasonly six months old.

“He went back to the doctor andit was too late . . . it came backStage 4,” Wells said. “That’s thething with melanoma. If it’s notdetected early enough, it has thechance to spread very quickly,and it did. That was in March,and we lost him in December.”

Only weeks before this inci-dent, she noticed a mole on herown leg, went to a walk-in clinic,

was diagnosed with a smalltumour and had it removedweeks later in late 2015, she said.

Still reeling from Morgan’sdeath almost three years later,Wells said working to ensure oth-ers don’t suffer the same fate has“become my life’s mission.”

“I’m trying to raise awareness,”she said. “If I can just stop onefamily from going through whatmy family has been through, tospare them, then my mission willbe complete.”

She started the Mole Patrolmovement soon after her son wasdiagnosed, but has since addedhis name to the cause and is closeto reaching non-profit statusafter teaming up with Save YourSkin.

“My goal is to try and educatepeople on how to play safe in thesun,” she said. “I’m not sayingstay out of the sun as we obvi-ously need the sun to heat theplanet, grow food and sustain life,but you have to stay safe and beaware of how deadly the sun can

be. Melanoma is a very surviv-able cancer, but only if you catchit early.”

Wells was shocked by howmany adults weren’t using anysunscreen when she took a sur-vey on July 1, a hot day.

“There were 380 people ques-tioned and more than one-thirdadmitted they did not wear sun-screen,” she said. “Many parentswould walk by with their chil-dren and the kids were coveredin sunscreen, but the parentswere not. I couldn’t believe it.”

The best way she could think ofto help others is to install asmany sunscreen stations as pos-sible in public places, she said.

The stations will be filled withlotion featuring sun protectionfactor 30.

“We’re trying to get these sun-screen stations at various loca-tions across the city and we’rejust working on the logisticsright now,” she said.

Continued on page A3

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THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2019

Audit finds manycontracts don’tcomply with gov’t standards

By The Canadian Press

VICTORIA — Staff at BritishColumbia’s liquor distributionbranch should receive contractmanagement training, says anaudit that revealed contractstotalling millions of dollars wereawarded without competition.

Auditor general Carol Bellringersaid Wednesday several contractsawarded by the province’s liquorbranch did not comply with pro-curement policies, including somethat were awarded without anopen bidding process.

The audit examined 74 directlyawarded contracts valued at about$25 million and found more thanhalf were directly awarded with-out the exceptional circumstancesrequired to avoid the biddingprocess, she said.

“In 41, or 55%, of the contractfiles we looked at, the reason forthe direct award could not clearlydemonstrate the existence of excep-tional conditions,” Bellringer saidat a telephone news conference.

Five exceptions are listed in thegovernment’s Core Policy andProcedures Manual for contractprocurement: a contract withother government organizations,proof only one contractor is qual-ified, an unforeseeable emergencythat restricts time for an open bidprocess, a likelihood that compe-tition would interfere with min-istry security and a threat thatpublic competition could compro-mise government confidentiality.

Continued on page A2

Falls found to beleading cause ofinjuries that landseniors in hospital

By The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Falls appear to bethe leading cause of injuries thatland seniors in hospital, accordingto newly released data from theCanadian Institute for HealthInformation that has experts call-ing for more preventative educa-tion on the issue.

The data collected from

participating hospitals across thecountry shows that of the roughly138,000 people aged 65 and olderwho were hospitalized forinjuries between April 1, 2017,and March 31, 2018, 81% of themwere hurt in a fall.

The CIHI said it chose to zero inon seniors to help educate the eld-erly about the injuries most likelyto affect them.

“We do have an aging popula-tion, so we really wanted to focuson what’s happening to our sen-iors,” said Nicholas Gnidziejko,manager of clinical administrativedatabases operations at the non-profit agency.

Fifty-one per cent of peopleadmitted to hospital during theperiod analyzed were 65 or older,he noted, adding that in manycases the injuries that broughtthose patients to hospital werepreventable.

One falls prevention expert wholooked at the data said falls are aparticular problem for the elderlybecause they can lead to a litany ofcomplications.

“Falls are the scourge of growingolder,” said Geoff Fernie, a seniorscientist and falls prevention offi-cer at the University HealthNetwork and TorontoRehabilitation Institute.

“If you get older and you getadmitted to hospital, it doesn’ttake long before you can’t get up.You don’t have the strength. Youdon’t have the muscle mass. Youalso become depressed and isolated, and your gut stops working.”

The number of people injured orkilled as a result of falls is likelyunderestimated because the fallsthemselves often aren’t reported,he said.

“It’s the pneumonia that theyeventually die of, or the other com-plications,” he said.

Continued on page A2

PUBLIC HEALTH

Son’s skin cancer deathsparks sunscreen drive

KEITH LACEY/Special to The Daily Courier

Karen Wells, with her granddaughter Aleighna, 7, shows off one of the sunscreen stations she is trying tobring to various public places in Kelowna, including the Kelowna Golf and Country Club, the Kelowna VisitorCentre and Gyro Beach, this summer.

HEALTH CARE

Report points to danger of falls for seniors

ACCOUNTABILITY

Liquorbranchpracticescriticized