MD Anderson Cancer Center and the CATCH Global Foundation recently announced an expansion of its sun safety education program aimed at children in grades preschool through 1st grade. The program, called Ray and the Sunbeatables: A Sun Safety Curriculum for K-1, will be available beginning in August 2016.
“Like all life-long health behaviors, sun safety education and prevention needs to start early. Burns in childhood increase a person’s risk of ending up among the estimated 1 in 5 people who will develop skin cancer in their lifetime,” says Duncan Van Dusen, Executive Director at the Austin-based CATCH Global Foundation. “Throughout the country, melanoma incidence continues to rise and here in Texas, we have the 5th highest rate. That’s why we are working with MD Anderson to provide this valuable educational content to children and parents so they can protect themselves all year long.”
The new curriculum expands the current Ray and the Sunbeatables: A Sun Safety Curriculum for Preschoolers to include students in K through 1st grade. The curriculum aims to educate teachers, parents and children about sun protection and promote sun safety behaviors to reduce children’s lifetime risk of developing skin cancer.

CATCH and MD Anderson’s Sunbeatables program offers the following sun safety tips for children:

  • Cover up by wearing wide-brimmed hats, sunglasses and protective clothing.
  • Use SPF 30 broad-spectrum sunscreen and lip balm and reapply regularly.
  • Stay in the shade.
  • Be super-protected or avoid sun exposure when shadows are shorter (between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.)
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