New Ross TY students say “UV Been Warned” in school cancer campaign

Transition Year class’ Young Social Innovators campaign

We are a group of Transition Years from Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School, New Ross, Wexford. Our Young Social Innovators project is called “UV Been Warned”. We chose this name because our project is all about raising awareness on the dangers of skin cancer and how to be sun safe.

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in Ireland and Ireland has the 14th highest death rate in the world for skin cancer and the highest death rate in Europe for melanoma. It is vital to stress these statistics as people in Ireland are unaware of the dangers of skin cancer because we are not a sunny country.

We began our campaign back in September and since then we have been working vigorously to raise awareness on such a serious topic. We had a radio interview on East Coast FM also our social media platforms have been shared by many accounts such as Melanoma Ireland. We also have had a great response to our project.

This is a photo of some of our class group, not everyone was present when the photo was being taken.

We have been contacted by the University Hospital Roscommon, Irish Cancer Society and Dermatologists just to name a few. We have contacted Met Eireann about getting the strength of the UV rays on the evening weather forecast which is our biggest goal and they have promised to put us on their news section on their website.

From our project, we would just like to warn everyone that no matter the weather you should still wear sun cream because the UV rays are still present. Our goal is to prevent skin cancer in Ireland because Ireland has a higher skin cancer death rate than Spain.

It is also important to check if your sun cream has a five star rating because the SPF factor alone is simply not enough. So, next time you step outside remember that no matter the time of year or weather wear your sun cream!

Don’t bake like a bun, stay safe in the sun!


We want everyone in Ireland to learn to Protect & Inspect their skin! Download our short guide, written with hospital-based dermatologists, to checking your skin.   

Melanoma is on the rise in Ireland: see the facts in these info-graphics – Melanoma Skin Cancer and Solar UV Radiation

Click for more more about Protect & Inspect!