SHADE Foundation

By Jessica Hackett

After Shonda Schilling’s doc­tor told her she had melanoma, she said she walked out of the office and still wanted to tan.

Schilling, wife of Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, told Stonehill College stu­dents Tuesday, April 1, she did not under­stand the seri­ous­ness of her skin can­cer, but after four surg­eries and a num­ber of per­ma­nent scars across her back, she real­ized she was lucky to be alive.

She said when fill­ing out paper­work at the doctor’s office, she described her­self as hav­ing olive skin because she tanned so much she for­got she was really fair skinned.

Schilling told stu­dents being tan was an impor­tant part of her life and even worked at night dur­ing the sum­mer so she would not miss a minute in the sun.

“I had my own idea of what beauty was,” Schilling said.

Schilling told the Stonehill stu­dents they were prob­a­bly already trained on what they believe being attrac­tive is, and said she would not lec­ture them about not going tan­ning, but said it is impor­tant to get your skin checked and use sun pro­tec­tion. She said she believed she looked beau­ti­ful with a tan, but now when she looks at pic­tures of her­self with­out a tan she can’t believe she thought she looked good since it was not nat­ural look­ing with her hair and eye color.

“We are all made dif­fer­ent for a rea­son,” Schilling said. “I can not even believe I thought that looked better.”

She said many peo­ple around her did not con­sider melanoma to be “real” can­cer. Schilling said it was not until she did an inter­view on ESPN where they aired pic­tures of her back that peo­ple began real­iz­ing the seri­ous­ness of her cancer.

Schilling said the lead­ing deadly can­cer in women 20 to 30 years old is skin can­cer and one in five chil­dren will be diag­nosed with the disease.

“Nobody thought it was real can­cer,” Schilling said.

She said every time she went to the doc­tor to get a mole removed, they would find another one that needed to be taken off. Melanoma can get into the blood stream and spread to major organs in the human body, Schilling said.

Stonehill stu­dent Amanda Santeuci said she was inter­view­ing Schilling, who lives in the same town as Santeuci, for a lead­er­ship paper she was work­ing on and they began talk­ing about skin cancer.

“I told her a lot of peo­ple at Stonehill tan so I told her it would be great if she could come and talk about skin can­cer, so she did,” Santeuci said.

Santeuci said some stu­dents even say they are “prob­a­bly going to die from some sort of can­cer so they tan anyway.”

“People at the school don’t really know what skin can­cer is,” Santeuci said. “I think more col­leges in gen­eral need to have more edu­ca­tion on skin cancer.”

In 2002, Schilling started the SHADE foun­da­tion, which was formed to edu­cate chil­dren and the com­mu­nity on melanoma, how to pre­vent and detect it and to pro­mote of sun safety.

Schilling said she got the name after she and her fam­ily moved to Arizona and she asked the school to put a shade over the play­ground, as they were out at recess in 115-degree weather.

She said when she and her fam­ily go to places like Disney World, they go after 2 p.m. and said going later in the after­noon has its perks in Disney World when the lines are much shorter.

When she trains for the Boston Marathon or the Pan Mass Challenge, she said she runs or bikes in the morn­ing before the sun is strong.

Schilling said Red Sox sec­ond base­man Dustin Pedroia’s wife had lymph nodes removed from her thigh after she was diag­nosed with skin can­cer at age 18. She also said for­mer Red Sox play­ers Derek Lowe and Mark Loretta are also skin can­cer survivors.

“It’s some­thing that’s becom­ing an epi­demic. The O-Zone layer is depleted and we can not fight what we’ve done to mother nature,” Schilling said.

DOVER — The Red Sox may be 1,500 miles away, but Red Sox Nation can put on their rally caps Friday for another impor­tant cause.

Shonda Schilling, wife of leg­endary Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, will be at the Elks Lodge for a Boston Marathon fundraiser to ben­e­fit the SHADE Foundation, which she started a year after she was diag­nosed with skin cancer.

The fundraiser, which will run from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m., will include live music, a DJ dance party and silent auc­tion fea­tur­ing a wide range of items includ­ing auto­graphed base­balls from Red Sox play­ers Jon Lester and Jason Varitek, four State Street Pavilion Club Seat tick­ets with a per­sonal tour of Fenway and a World Series jer­sey auto­graphed by Curt Schilling.

Schilling said although there is “some­thing there for every­body,” she knew the Red Sox items would appeal to the broad fan base in Dover.

“It’s a way to get some­thing that they may never be able to,” Schilling said. “And it’s for a good cause.”

But Schilling said the fundraiser also gives her an oppor­tu­nity to spread a mes­sage that could have a big impact.

“Even if I get 100 peo­ple to come and I get to say what SHADE is about really quick, there might be an adult that goes home and looks over their body and it might save their life,” Schilling said. “That’s the best thing we can do.”

Dover res­i­dents Michael Brewer, Schilling’s brother, and Jeffery Hatch are host­ing the event and will both be run­ning in the Boston Marathon next month.

It will be both Schilling’s and Brewer’s fourth year in a row rep­re­sent­ing SHADE in the race, Schilling said.

Schilling said run­ning the race grew from a long­time goal to a way to reclaim her life after being diag­nosed with malig­nant melanoma in 2001.

“Doing a marathon was a way for me to take back my life and not be afraid,” Schilling said, adding that she ini­tially feared doing out­door activ­i­ties after her diag­no­sis. “It’s not about being out­side, it’s about being knowl­edge­able and pre­ven­tive. Really it was a way for me to go, ‘I’m not liv­ing scared anymore.’”

Tickets for the Boston Marathon fundraiser are $10 and will be avail­able at the door.

In between spend­ing time with her hus­band at spring train­ing, Schilling has been mak­ing fre­quent trips to the Seacoast to pro­mote SHADE.

Earlier this month, Schilling trav­eled to ele­men­tary schools in Dover to talk to stu­dents about sun safety, a piv­otal part of pro­tect­ing the future gen­er­a­tions from skin can­cer, she said.

“Kids are sponges,” Schilling said. “I tell them, ‘Can you imag­ine that your moms and dads did not wear seat belts?’ and they can’t believe it. That’s what I want this to be. I want them to grow up and tell their kids ‘Can you imag­ine we didn’t wear sunblock?’”

While at Dover schools, Schilling also pro­moted SHADE’s “Limit the Sun, Not the Fun” national poster con­test, which asks chil­dren from kinder­garten to eighth grade to draw posters dis­play­ing at least five “SunWise action steps for sun safety.”

A win­ner from each state in New England will be invited to watch the Red Sox play the Milwaukee Brewers on May 18 and meet­ing Curt Schilling on the field before the game.

One win­ner from New England will also be cho­sen to throw out the first pitch of the game.

Each state’s win­ner will also be eli­gi­ble to win a grand prize trip for four to Walt Disney World.

“The poster con­test is a great teach­ing tool to talk about it and get kids talk­ing to their par­ents about it,” Schilling said. Details about the con­test are avail­able on SHADE’s web­site, ShadeFoundation.org.

11^th Annual Awards Recognize SHADE Foundation of America in Raising Awareness of Dermatology PHOENIX

The American Academy of Dermatology pre­sented the 2008 Gold Triangle Awards dur­ing its 66^th Annual Meeting in San Antonio. National orga­ni­za­tion, SHADE Foundation of America, was one of 32 win­ners in the media, indus­try, health com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tion, and health indi­vid­ual cat­e­gories for excel­lence in fur­ther­ing pub­lic under­stand­ing of der­ma­to­logic issues and encour­ag­ing healthy behav­ior in the care of skin, hair and nails.

“Each of our Gold Triangle Award win­ners is to be com­mended for their efforts in increas­ing pub­lic aware­ness of der­ma­tol­ogy, encour­ag­ing peo­ple to rec­og­nize their skin, hair and nail con­di­tions, and to seek the expert care of a der­ma­tol­o­gist,” said der­ma­tol­o­gist Diane R. Baker, MD, FAAD, pres­i­dent of the American Academy of Dermatology. “By enhanc­ing the lives of those affected phys­i­cally, emo­tion­ally and finan­cially by der­ma­to­logic con­di­tions, these pro­grams and ini­tia­tives have the poten­tial to improve the qual­ity of life for numer­ous individuals.”

SHADE Foundation of America was awarded for their Skin Self-Exam DVD that instructs view­ers on how to exam­ine their skin for signs of skin can­cer. SHADE part­nered with HealthiNation to cre­ate the DVD which encour­ages view­ers to visit a der­ma­tol­o­gist if they dis­cover some­thing abnor­mal on their skin dur­ing the self exam. The DVD can be viewed on www.HealthiNation.com, www.shadefoundation.org, as well as Comcast Video on Demand cable channels.

SHADE Foundation of America was estab­lished in 2002 by Shonda Schilling, melanoma sur­vivor and wife of Red Sox Pitcher, Curt Schilling. The SHADE Foundation’s mis­sion is to erad­i­cate melanoma through edu­cat­ing chil­dren and the com­mu­nity in the pre­ven­tion and detec­tion of melanoma and the pro­mo­tion of sun safety. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shadefoundation.org.

Headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., the American Academy of Dermatology (Academy), founded in 1938, is the largest, most influ­en­tial, and most rep­re­sen­ta­tive of all der­ma­to­logic asso­ci­a­tions. With a mem­ber­ship of more than 15,000 physi­cians world­wide, the Academy is com­mit­ted to: advanc­ing the diag­no­sis and med­ical, sur­gi­cal and cos­metic treat­ment of the skin, hair and nails; advo­cat­ing high stan­dards in clin­i­cal prac­tice, edu­ca­tion, and research in der­ma­tol­ogy; and sup­port­ing and enhanc­ing patient care for a life­time of health­ier skin, hair and nails. For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact the Academy at 1 – 888-462-DERM (3376) or www.aad.org.

Blue Lizard & SHADE along with Walgreens drug stores and local der­ma­tol­o­gists are on site con­duct­ing free skin can­cer screen­ings through the week­end. “Twenty can­cer­ous lesions were detected dur­ing screen­ings on Friday”, reports Jeff Bedard, CEO of Blue Lizard. “Through early detec­tion we hope to save lives and bring sun safety aware­ness to thou­sands of NASCAR fans.” A sim­i­lar pro­gram through Blue Lizard began in 2001 at Bristol Motor Speedway and have found nearly 100 melanomas dur­ing the past four years.

The Blue Lizard 200 NASCAR event at Infineon Raceway is an idear way to raise aware­ness about sun safety. SHADE Foundation will present an award to the California win­ner of the national SunWise with SHADE poster con­test. The win­ning artist will be the hon­orary starter on Saturday, drop­ping the green flag to start the race.

Along with the free screen­ings and free Blue Lizard Suncream sam­ples, chil­dren will be able to vote for their favorite poster and enter a draw­ing for a NASCAR prize.

The SHADE Foundation would like to turn your atten­tion to the Boston Youth Zone. The Youth Zone offers recre­ational oppor­tu­ni­ties for city kids.

More infor­ma­tion avail­able at BostonYouthZone.com.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and Minnesota Twins pitcher Johan Santana are use to match­ing up against each other on the base­ball field, but today they used their celebrity sta­tus to spread the word about pro­tect­ing your skin. Both all-star pitch­ers have been deeply affected by melanoma, the most deadly form of skin can­cer. They are now work­ing together to edu­cate chil­dren about respon­si­ble sun behav­ior through the SunWise with SHADE Poster Contest.

In January, Johan Santana lost a per­sonal friend, Lynne Greenberg, the wife of his base­ball agent Ed Greenberg, to the dis­ease. Curt Schilling’s wife Shonda is a five year melanoma sur­vivor and founder of the SHADE Foundation of America, a skin can­cer aware­ness non­profit that edu­cates chil­dren about sun-safety. Statistics indi­cate one in five kids will grow up to have skin can­cer. Melanoma is the lead­ing cause of can­cer deaths among women ages 25 – 29.

“Melanoma is a dev­as­tat­ing dis­ease that can destroy lives. It is a tragedy to see a fam­ily lose their mother to skin can­cer as I saw this past off sea­son,” said Johan Santana, the SunWise with SHADE ambas­sador in Minnesota. “So many peo­ple don’t real­ize melanoma can kill you. Changing the atti­tude of our soci­ety towards sun expo­sure, espe­cially among our chil­dren can help save lives by elim­i­nat­ing future cases of the disease.”

During a press con­fer­ence today at the Metrodome before open­ing a series between the Red Sox and the Twins, Schilling & Santana encour­aged chil­dren in kinder­garten to 8^th grade to learn basic sun-safe rules and enter the SunWise with SHADE poster con­test. The con­test calls for kids to draw a poster that reflects respon­si­ble sun expo­sure behavior.

• Do not burn and avoid sun tan­ning and tan­ning beds
• Generously apply sun­screen (SPF 15+)
• Wear pro­tec­tive cloth­ing– sun­glasses, hats and full length shirts and pants
• Seek shade and be extra care­ful near reflec­tive sur­faces includ­ing water, snow and sand
• Watch for the UV Index– a mea­sure of UV inten­sity included in many weather forecasts

Youngsters in grades k-8 from each state com­pete for state prizes. One win­ner is selected for each state and is entered into the national poster con­test to win a trip to Disney World. The state prize for Minnesota is a chance to meet Johan Santana and watch a Minnesota Twins game in addi­tion to a $250 sav­ings bond and a $500 SHADE Grant to the winner’s school. Posters must be received by May 31, 2007 and sent to SHADE Foundation, 10510 North 92^nd Street, Suite 100, Scottsdale, AZ 85258.

SHADE Foundation of America is a 501-C3 launched by Shonda Schilling, the wife of Boston Red Sox Pitcher, Curt Schilling in 2002. The goal of the foun­da­tion is to erad­i­cate melanoma through the edu­ca­tion of chil­dren and the com­mu­nity in the pre­ven­tion and detec­tion of skin can­cer and the pro­mo­tion of sun safety.

Download arti­cle.

Students enter SunWise with Shade Poster Contest

Baltimore County, MD — Shonda Schilling, the Founder of the SHADE Foundation of America and wife of Boston Red Sox Pitcher Curt Schilling, shared impor­tant infor­ma­tion about sun-safety with stu­dents at Colgate Elementary School in Baltimore, MD today. Statistics indi­cate 1 in 5 kids will grow up to develop skin can­cer, the most com­mon form of can­cer in the U.S. Shonda, a grad­u­ate of Colgate Elementary School, is a melanoma sur­vivor who is pas­sion­ate about her work to pre­vent future cases of skin cancer.

“My hope is by speak­ing to these kids I can help reduce or elim­i­nate the alarm­ing sta­tis­tics. I remem­ber the scare that I went through after being diag­nosed with can­cer. If I can save even one fam­ily from hav­ing to deal with the pain my fam­ily and I dealt with, it will be worth it,” said Shonda Schilling.

Shonda uses the SunWise cur­ricu­lum to drive home her mes­sage with the kids. The SunWise pro­gram is a free envi­ron­men­tal and health cur­ricu­lum cre­ated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency that over 20,000 edu­ca­tors across the coun­try have signed up to use. Shonda informs stu­dents of the respon­si­ble sun-safe behav­iors and encour­ages stu­dents to enter the SunWise with SHADE Poster Contest. The con­test calls for stu­dents to cre­atively incor­po­rate the basic sun-safety mes­sages in a poster to win prizes. The basic mes­sage includes:

• Do not burn and avoid sun tan­ning and tan­ning beds
• Generously apply sun­screen (SPF 15+)
• Wear pro­tec­tive cloth­ing– sun­glasses, hats and full length shirts and pants
• Seek shade and be extra care­ful near reflec­tive sur­faces includ­ing water, snow and sand
• Watch for the UV Index– a mea­sure of UV inten­sity included in many weather forecasts

EPA rep­re­sen­ta­tives joined Shonda today to explain the con­nec­tion between the ozone layer, known as the Earth’s sun­screen, and skin can­cer. They pointed out the impor­tance in talk­ing to young kids.

“Reaching chil­dren at an early age and edu­cat­ing them about sun-safety is key in the fight to erad­i­cate skin can­cer,” says Drusilla Hufford, U.S. EPA’s Stratospheric Protection Division Director. “That is why EPA’s SunWise Program is a proud part­ner with the SHADE Foundation and encour­ages all chil­dren from kinder­garten through eighth grade to enter the SunWise with SHADE poster con­test before May 10^th.

SHADE Foundation of America is a 501-C3 launched in 2002 that is ded­i­cated to erad­i­cat­ing melanoma through the edu­ca­tion of chil­dren and the com­mu­nity in the pre­ven­tion and detec­tion of skin can­cer and the pro­mo­tion of sun safety.

EPA’s SunWise Program is a free envi­ron­men­tal and health edu­ca­tion pro­gram that helps teach the pub­lic how to pro­tect them­selves from over­ex­po­sure to the sun through the use of classroom-, school-, and community-based com­po­nents. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.epa.gov/sunwise.

The SHADE Foundation offers the fol­low­ing tips for com­bat­ing skin cancer:

• Pick the right sun­screen – You should always pick a sun­screen with at least SPF 15, how­ever your search shouldn’t end there. The sun emits UVA and UVB rays, both of which can be very harm­ful to the skin. UVB rays, which are the pri­mary cause of skin can­cer, are usu­ally blocked by win­dows or glass which UVA rays can pen­e­trate through. Make sure when pick­ing a sun­screen, you choose a prod­uct that pro­tects against both of these harm­ful sun rays.
• Reapply sun­screen every 90 min­utes – Many peo­ple think apply­ing sun­screen once dur­ing the day pro­vides them with the nec­es­sary pro­tec­tion. However, a strong sun­screen needs to be applied every 90 min­utes to achieve the nec­es­sary cov­er­age and protection.
• Stay out of the sun dur­ing peak hours – Seeking shade or stay­ing indoors dur­ing the suns most intense hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. greatly increases your chance for sun safety.
• Avoid Burns – Prolonged expo­sure to the sun enhances the chance of get­ting sig­nif­i­cant sun­burn which greatly increases the chance of devel­op­ing melanoma. In fact, receiv­ing five or more sun­burns dur­ing your life­time dou­bles your risk of devel­op­ing skin cancer.
• Beware of Reflective Sunlight – Most peo­ple think if they’re out of direct sun­light they are out of harms way. However, often sun­light reflected off con­crete, wind­shields, awnings, water and even snow can be just as harm­ful and unavoid­able as direct sunlight.
• Check Your Skin Regularly– make an annual appoint­ment to see your dermatologist

Download arti­cle.

By Thomas R. Kressler, Democrat Staff Writer

In 2005, Shonda Schilling, wife of Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, laced up her run­ning shoes and hit the streets of Beantown for the Boston Marathon.

Following a suc­cess­ful bout with malig­nant melanoma, run­ning the gru­el­ing race was a way to reclaim her life, Schilling said dur­ing Saturday’s fundraiser at The Ballroom at the Rockingham, in Portsmouth.

“Running a marathon was like tak­ing my life back,” Schilling said. “I didn’t have to be scared of the out­doors anymore.”

Schilling’s diag­no­sis was in 2001, and a year later she founded the SHADE Foundation, a non­profit ded­i­cated to rais­ing aware­ness of issues related to skin can­cer. Since 2005, run­ning the Boston Marathon has been a way to raise money for the orga­ni­za­tion, which also spon­sors a nation­wide poster con­test in schools, among other projects.

Saturday’s event at the down­town hot spot was a fundraiser for three local marathon run­ners, who are among 15 SHADE is spon­sor­ing and was St. Patrick’s Day themed. Green Red Sox hats and jer­seys abounded while about 75 party goers ate food donated by Shaw’s, sipped wine and bid on numer­ous items in a silent and live auc­tion, includ­ing auto­graphed Red Sox memorabilia.

The goal was to raise $10,000 for the team, and ulti­mately $80,0000 by April 16, the day of the 26.2-mile marathon.

Schilling’s brother, Michael Brewer, of Dover, was one of the three run­ners spon­sor­ing the event. Like Schilling, this will be his third year run­ning with the team.

“I keep say­ing the last, but she (Schilling) keeps say­ing no,” Brewer joked. “I don’t look for­ward to the training.”

For less expe­ri­enced run­ners, train­ing typ­i­cally begins four months before the marathon. The two other local run­ners are Luke and Rachel Martin, of South Berwick, Maine, who are brother and sister-in-law.

“It (SHADE) was really started because there wasn’t any­thing else out there,” Schilling said. “So many peo­ple lost loved ones and a lot of peo­ple really didn’t know what it was. I felt like I had an obligation.”

The Schillings are involved in a num­ber of char­i­ta­ble pur­suits, among them Curt Schilling’s part­ner­ship with the ALS Foundation. But run­ning the marathon is a way Shonda can raise money for SHADE with­out depend­ing on Curt. It also fur­thers the goal of edu­cat­ing chil­dren and par­ents about skin health, which she says is often ignored.

“We teach kids how to brush their teeth but we don’t teach them how to take care of their skin,” Schilling said.

Heidi and Tripp Johnson, neigh­bors of the Schillings in Medfield, Mass., made the trip Saturday night to sup­port the SHADE Foundation. Having known the Schillings for more than two years, their con­nec­tion runs deep.

The Johnsons’ son William, 7, suf­fers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a com­pletely debil­i­tat­ing dis­ease sim­i­lar to ALS. Schilling noticed William’s dis­abil­ity when the two fam­i­lies ran into each other at a neigh­bor­hood base­ball field. In Oct. 2005, Schilling was instru­men­tal in get­ting the Johnsons on an episode of Extreme Makeover, where their old farm­house was trans­formed into a mansion.

In addi­tion, Heidi Johnson has bat­tled melanoma twice, first in1998 and again 2001, lead­ing her to sup­port the SHADE Foundation when­ever possible.

“The power of the Schilling fam­ily goes far,” Heidi Johnson said. “They take all their energy and put it to good use. It’s amazing.”

As a health and phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion teacher at Dover Middle School, George Liset says he is aware of the lack of skin can­cer aware­ness and a sup­porter of the SHADE Foundation. And as a life­long Red Sox fan, he was eye­ing any num­ber of auto­graphed mem­o­ra­bilia Saturday night, includ­ing a signed Curt Schilling jer­sey and a signed issue of Sports Illustrated declar­ing the Red Sox “Sportsmen of the Year” fol­low­ing their 2004 World Series win.

“I was one of those peo­ple who when they won the World Series I went to my grand­par­ents’ grave,” Liset said. “I’ve got a (Carlton) Fisk auto­graph, a (Ted) Williams auto­graph, and a (Carl) Yastrzemski auto­graph, and it’s my goal to get a Schilling auto­graph tonight. I might have to break the bank to do it.”

Plus, any money he bids goes to a good cause.

“It’s great when they give some­thing back to the com­mu­nity,” Liset said. “Any chance to sup­port a great orga­ni­za­tion, I like to be able to do that.”

Download 2007 Boston Marathon Auction (PDF)

New Video Makes It Easy to Conduct Self Skin Exams; Allows Consumers to Take More Control of Their Health in Detection and Prevention of Melanoma

NEW YORK – (BUSINESS WIRE) – HealthiNation, an emerg­ing dig­i­tal health edu­ca­tion net­work, and The SHADE Foundation of America, a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cated to erad­i­cat­ing skin can­cer through the edu­ca­tion and pro­mo­tion of sun safety, today announced the unveil­ing of a new, short-format “Skin Self-Exam” DVD video show­ing con­sumers how to con­duct self skin exams as part of a national skin can­cer aware­ness campaign.

HealthiNation and SHADE Foundation founder Shonda Schilling, along with hus­band and major league base­ball player Curt Schilling by her side, kicked-off the cam­paign and intro­duced the new video at a spe­cial media event on Wednesday, January 31^st, at the Millennium Bostonian Hotel in Boston, 8:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. ET.

Hosted by Shonda Schilling, the new video urged the pub­lic at-large and local com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try to check their moles. The video demon­strates to view­ers how to con­duct self skin exams in an effort to detect and pre­vent skin cancer.

While most skin can­cer infor­ma­tion is pro­vided in brochure and pam­phlet for­mats, HealthiNation will enable con­sumers to learn about this dis­ease in a com­pelling, inter­ac­tive way through dig­i­tal video. The short-format video pro­gram will be avail­able on HealthiNation’s video-on-demand cable net­work in 25 states, and on its Internet Affiliate Network includ­ing www.HealthiNation.com: and www.ShadeFoundation.org. A con­densed ver­sion will be dis­trib­uted on a DVD, which will be avail­able at doctor’s offices and dis­trib­uted at pro­mo­tional events.

Shonda Schilling is a sur­vivor of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin can­cer. Since found­ing the SHADE Foundation in 2002, she has worked tire­lessly to edu­cate the pub­lic on sun-safety.

”We are very pleased to part­ner with HealthiNation to debut this skin aware­ness cam­paign. It is our hope that together we can bring addi­tional aware­ness to the pub­lic by giv­ing them the nec­es­sary tools in which to pro­tect them­selves, espe­cially as we begin to approach the spring sea­son and more peo­ple become exposed to the sun,” said Schilling.

Raj Amin, HealthiNation CEO, believes that the part­ner­ship with the SHADE Foundation will not only help con­sumers to learn more about melanoma, but will empower them to take a more proac­tive role in their over­all health.

“HealthiNation was formed to drive aware­ness for health issues in a consumer-friendly way, and we’re excited to help raise the pro­file of melanoma because it is a sig­nif­i­cant health con­cern that is highly pre­ventable. Our part­ner­ship with the SHADE Foundation along with Shonda’s incred­i­ble story gives our audi­ence the infor­ma­tion and inspi­ra­tion to take action,” said Amin.

About HealthiNation

HealthiNation is a new “straight-talking” health video net­work cre­ated to address con­sumers’ needs for accu­rate, easy-to-understand health infor­ma­tion that lets them take con­trol of their health in real ways. HealthiNation video pro­grams are designed for inter­ac­tiv­ity and include 3D bio-animations, on-camera doc­tors, and documentary-style true life sto­ries. The free-to-consumer ser­vice can be found on the inter­net at www.healthination.com and through its Affiliate Network of qual­i­fied web sites. HealthiNation is also avail­able on video-on-demand cable tele­vi­sion in many mar­kets across the U.S. − so con­sumers can view inno­v­a­tive seg­ments when and where they want them. All con­tent is devel­oped by expe­ri­enced health care pro­fes­sion­als in their respec­tive med­ical fields. For more infor­ma­tion on HealthiNation, please visit www.healthination.com.

Download orig­i­nal arti­cle.