Lions Mobile Skin Cancer Van Stops in at Vermont South Bunnings
The Lions V Districts Cancer Foundation makes a real and lasting difference in people’s lives with their mobile skin cancer check vans.
On July 22nd and 23rd their mobile van was in Bunnings carpark at Vermont South, Victoria. Lions Club of Waverley President Eamonn Cooke writes:
This project had Lions Club of Waverley as the main club organiser, and we were assisted by Lions Club of South Vermont. People attended on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd July to be screened for skin cancer. Around 110 people attended, many of whom – including myself – were being screened for the first time. Both Lions groups donated the net proceeds from their BBQs on Friday and Saturday to this project. Our club’s donation was $1 500. We also funded most of the skin cancer team’s meals and their hotel accommodation.
Back in January 2022, the idea for this project was communicated to our club. Over the next few months, we established a team from both Waverley and South Vermont to drive the event. We are appreciative of the assistance we received from Bunnings Activity Officer, Marie. She was an important cog in this project; donating her time to attend meetings, and answering my phone calls and many emails.
During the lead up to the event, I was constantly in contact with Wendy Hellebrand (OAM) Skin Check Roster/Volunteer Screeners Coordinator. Her knowledge and support were amazing and it meant so much to have her help.
Lion Bob set up an electronic spreadsheet with a dedicated email address to record the bookings. He also produced the event running sheet, which was a key document that scheduled action items for the team to be aware of. As the time got closer, I met up with Lions Dave Underhay and John Watson. These two Lions were key to the unit getting to the Vermont South location and kept safely stored overnight. Thank you both for your contribution and effort in making it all look so easy!
When I saw the unit and the length of it, I was awe struck. It’s amazing. Vermont Bunnings were generous by facilitating the unit to be located on their ‘prime real-estate’ at the front of the store beside the BBQ setup.
Show time was 6am Friday 22nd and it was zero degrees. Shivering Lions Bill, Tony, Bob and driver John were assembling the unit for the day. My left foot had frost bite. This was fabulous teamwork setting everything up. Again, on Saturday 23rd DG Graham and Lions David, Bob and driver John were hard at work. I managed to drop a heavy witches hat on the DG’s foot!
On Friday morning, Wendy and her team Susan, Bob, Iggy, and Anthony arrived and got down to business. Their whole approach to examining people was so professional and non-intrusive, although standing there in my undies was interesting! A massive thanks must go out to the team.
On each day we had our ‘triage team’ from both clubs booking in the clients. Bob had electronically recorded each person and the attendance was fine.
Meanwhile, our Lions BBQ mob were hard at work drumming up business. Both Waverley and South Vermont teams helped the day earning funds to assist the Skin Cancer Unit.
Lastly, a great big thank you to Lion Monica from the Lions Club of Waverley for baking a fabulous fruit cake for the skin cancer team, delicious was the consensus!
Click here to find out more about how the Lions V Districts Cancer Foundation is saving lives.
