President Chris Dever opened the meeting.
Birthdays and Anniversaries: None
Anniversaries: Note to Dave McDonald – a birthday this week.
Guests: Amy Stanway - Speaker
Kevin Atkinson introduced Amy Stanway as speaker.
Amy gave an informative if not entirely comfortable talk about the various types of skin cancer, being melanoma, squamous, and basal.
NZ’s rate of melanoma is higher than anywhere else in the world. Melanoma is the least common but most dangerous form of skin cancer. It is also the hardest to diagnose, and spreads to other parts of the body more quickly.
Squamous cancers are quite common and are easier to diagnose because we notice them. If left for too long they can spread and can be fatal.
Basal cancers are very common and are relatively easy to treat but they can recur years later.
About 2/3 if us will develop either SCC or BCC in our lifetimes. About 2.5% of us will get melanoma, but melanoma causes 80% of skin cancer deaths – about 4000 a year if your editor got that right. It is the third most common form of cancer. Cause include genetics, some medications, exposure to toxins and scarring from injury, but the overwhelming cause is exposure to the sun. Clothing and a hat are better than sunblock. Most of us do not need to go out in the sun to get enough vitamin D. Previously having metastised melanoma was pretty hard to survive but now drugs such as Keytruda are quite effective. We should all be getting skin checks annually, and more often if we have actually had a skin cancer.
Colin Beere provided the speaker thanks.
- Chris noted that the deadline for Rotary Foundation funding is 30 September. No applications have been submitted yet.
- Michele gave a heads up that support will be requested for laying and maintaining bait lines in K Valley.
The Raffle went to Ron Fyfe
Sergeant Pat Taylor
Took us through a word puzzle which needed to be seen. It was won by Dan who nevertheless left empty handed because Pat had left the prize at home…
Parting Thought came from Graham Cornes – You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start now and change the ending.