Great Bend Masons will host a free cancer screening on Saturday, June 3, during June Jaunt. Held from 9 a.m. to noon at Barton County Health Department, 1300 Kansas Ave., the screening is open to the public. It is one of 28 free cancer prevention events the Kansas Masonic Foundation is sponsoring across the state in 2017.
Kansas Masonic Foundation conducts the screenings in partnership with the Midwest Cancer Alliance, the outreach division of The University of Kansas Cancer Center, and KU Medical Center staff. According to Brooke Groneman, the outreach director for MCA, nearly 7,000 Kansas residents have attended the Masonic screenings over the past few years. The event in Barton County is being coordinated by Masonic volunteers from Great Bend Lodge No. 15 and includes free skin and prostate cancer screenings, Screen-to-Save colon cancer screening home kits, facial sun damage assessments, bone density and BMI tests and health education materials.
Greg King, a volunteer from Lodge No. 15, notes that the 2017 screening will mark the first time the Lodge has hosted the event in Barton County. “We decided to hold the event during June Jaunt so we could help visitors, as well as friends and neighbors,” says King.
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, approximately 6,000 Americans are diagnosed with some form of skin cancer every day and more than 200 of those are diagnosed with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. The Centers for Disease Control reports that, in Kansas, cancer is the leading cause of death and the region has higher than average rates of skin cancer, compared to other parts of the U.S.
“When we catch cancer in its early stages it can make a big difference in successful treatment,” says University of Kansas Medical Center dermatologist Aly Barland, MD.