EL PASO COUNTY — There is a push for better skin cancer awareness in rural Colorado, especially among farmers and ranchers.
“I think that's why farmers and ranchers are more susceptible because. We're more focused on taking care of our animals or our equipment or our livestock than we are ourselves, and that's probably not a good attitude, but I think that's a lot of the reality,” said Rancher Chris Schade.
Schade and his wife raise alpacas and other livestock at Red Barn Ranch out on the plains near the small town of Calhan Colorado.
“We really wanted to do a lot more as far as the agritourism and educating people about farming and ranching and taking care of animals,” said Schade.
Colorado’s wide-open plains work well for raising animals.
There is also a lot of sun exposure.
“I'm outside a lot,” said Schade.
He enjoys his time outside.
He also knows it is a threat he needs to monitor.
“Skin cancer itself is in my family. My dad, He was always fighting skin cancer, kept cutting it off, burning it off. He ended up with squamous cell carcinoma, which metastasized, and that's what ended up killing him.”
Health organizations, including the American Academy of Dermatology, report skin cancer as the most common cancer in the United States.
Doctor Brayden Healey with Vanguard Skin Specialists in Colorado Springs grew up in a rural town and recognizes the skin cancer risk for people from those communities.
He said, “The ability to get care in a rural area is really difficult. You have to arrange time off work. Rides take a whole day to take a trip to the doctor, especially the dermatologist.”
The outcome he has seen multiple times is delayed diagnosis and treatment due to distance and the inconvenience of getting to a doctor.
“By the time we make that diagnosis, they do have advanced stage cancers as compared to those who might live in an area like Colorado Springs and have easy access at any time,” said Healey.
To counter the issue, Dr. Healey and colleagues now have agreements with rural clinics in the towns of La Junta and Hugo, Colorado, where the doctor does the traveling to make appointments more convenient for people living in rural areas.
He said, “They're at a very high risk of developing skin cancers and more advanced skin cancers. So, our goal is to stop that in its tracks.”
Skin cancer is common.
The rate of successful treatment is also high, when it is caught early.
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