Aveeno Road to Healthy Skin Tour provides a life changing experience

Anyone who follows Beauty Info Zone or has read my reviews for 11 years previously on beauty boards knows that there’s nothing for me quite like finding products that I love and can share with you. I get a lot of joy out of that. But nothing I’ve written prior to today’s article is going to give me quite the pleasure of providing you information that can be life changing.

Once before I wrote about The Road to Healthy Skin Tour sponsored by Aveeno and Rite Aid. This is a vital initiative that I was privileged to take part in this week. The bus in this picture is traveling around the country providing free skin cancer screenings by a licensed dermatologist from the area. The tour started in Jacksonville, Florida on March 11^th and will have 80 stops by the time they conclude on Sept. 17^th in New Orleans.

Let me tell you about my experience. I arrived at the Rite Aid at 9:40 since the times were from 10 to 4. I was the 5^th person in line. When I left approximately an hour later there were about 18 people in line. From what the bus host and hostess (Chris and Christie) told me, they expected a pretty steady stream of people throughout the day. The doctor that I saw from Canton, MI (Dr. David Blum) spends anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes with each person depending on what you request and what he finds. There were 4 options available:

• Complete body
• Face & Arms
• Specific Lesion
• Above Waist

I requested an above waist screening and there was a nurse with us at all times. Dr. Blum started with my face and explained each thing he found there (specifically a blood vessel), then he thoroughly examined my head. I was fascinated with that since I have thick dark hair and always thought my head was protected. It turns out that many people though have lesions there that aren’t visible to them because none of us can see the back or top of our heads quite that thoroughly. On my arm I pointed out 2 bumps that I thought were moles but I was wrong. They were seborrheic keratosis (SK) which isn’t precancerous. But a freckle that I have on my arm is suspicious enough that I need to watch it. It was recommended that I use a good sunscreen on my arms daily (which I already do) and that I watch it for changes. Luckily nothing else was found though Dr. Blum did explain to me about the SK on my upper body and about my skin tags. I walked away from this experience feeling that I learned a lot about my body. Something interesting that occurred is that he convinced me that I need a colonoscopy again since my many skin tags can be an indication of polyps. What priceless information he gave me. And this was all FREE!!

At the event there approximately 10 handouts available explaining any of the types of cancerous lesions that could be found along with others that talk about prevention. These handouts were from the Skin Cancer Foundation. Their website has so much valuable information that I hope you’ll visit and bookmark it. You can find the schedule for the bus tour on the website too. The two logos I have at the bottom of this review are the new seals of recommendation that The Skin Cancer Foundation has for products that will meet their standards by May 2012.

Besides the handouts we were given the latest issue of Fitness magazine which has a great article about sunscreen protection and samples of Aveeno Continuous Protection Sunblock Lotion SPF 55.What I experienced is available to absolutely everyone from babies to senior citizens. The people I talked to in line had learned about the event at a Senior Citizen Center while others learned about it from their local newspapers. Chris from the Skin Cancer Foundation told me that many parents have brought their teenagers to the bus to help them learn about the dangers of tanning, especially when using indoor tanning equipment. Dr. Blum told me that what’s changed in the last 50 years about preventing skin cancer is the awareness of it. He said that 92% of problems are cured early because we know so much more about self examination and prevention.  He also said that 70% of melanomas are discovered by the patient but that they aren’t usually aware that it is cancerous. I urge you to check out the schedule and see if this is available near you. There aren’t many times you can get this kind of thorough information for FREE. Plus you’ll walk away with samples of an outstanding sunscreen by Aveeno.  Thank you for reading (now go do something about this!!!). — Marcia

And now for a bit of fun. Aveeno sponsored a Mother’s Day contest for Beauty Info Zone and the winner of it sent us a picture thanking us for her wonderful package. I couldn’t resist sharing it with you. “Thank you for the Aveeno!! We used it during bathtime today and are totally converted.”