7 AM – Good Morning San Diego! Today started off with an appearance on the KUSI news station. Are we famous yet? Dr. Gilbertson was interviewed and Cliff Carson (a representative from Aveeno) volunteered to sit in for the screening. It was great to feature a man being screened. A tour first! Many people saw the Road to Healthy Skin Tour RV on TV and decided to come check us out.

10 AM-4 PM – Rite Aid Screening Event. With the music flowing from our guest radio station, the crowd quickly grew to more than 20 people. While people waited in line, the radio station played a “name that tune” game, and everyone browsed our sponsors’ table for our give-ways and filled out forms. Drs. Yardy Tse, Ruth Gilboa, Harrison McDonald, and Brian Jiang checked out patients, and the line never ended. As many people reminded us, “This is San Diego. We are a city of eternal sun. A skin cancer screening is a must.”

Although today’s event in San Diego was very short, it was worthwhile, and we met some nice people. The Rite Aid was situated just a few blocks from the beach, and when the RV arrived, over 10 patients were ready and waiting. With just a single hour of screening time, Dr. Gilbertson was able to see 13 lucky people, finding two suspected actinic keratoses, four suspected basal cell carcinomas, and most importantly, a suspected melanoma.

Vip Soni, MD

We cruised into Huntington Beach today. It’s a small beach community just south of Los Angeles, and people were waiting for us when we arrived. We received a warm welcome and over half of the people told us they’d joined us for a screening last year. Many of them said they wouldn’t have missed this day for anything! Dr. Vip Soni found two suspected melanomas.

Today we were in Whittier, California, just outside Los Angeles. Lots of sun here means lots of screenings. Only two more weeks to go. Whew!

Like one of our guests today commented, we were in Beverly Hills, 90210, just like the show. We had a hard time parking here—In fact, we decided it was the most difficult place to park on the entire tour!

Vicki Rapaport, MD

Surrounded by luxury cars, high-end retail shops, and some of the most beautiful people in the world, The Skin Cancer Foundation’s bus was shining like a star! There was lots of buzz about what the big yellow RV was doing in the Rite Aid parking lot. We had many inquiries throughout the day and there were lots of people eager to get screened. Everyone wanted to get seen by a Beverly Hills doctor. And the MDs were great—Drs. Helen Fincher, Vicki Rapapport (who arrived on her son’s scooter at last year’s screening), and Lisa Chipps performed 42 exams, and said to please make sure to contact them for the events next year. They can’t wait to do it again.

Today was a day full of positives. We had a great doctor (Susan Goodlerner, MD, who performed 25 exams), fantastic participants, and beautiful weather. Even though it was a short day for screenings, we arrived early and were able to start talking to people right away. We gave out a lot of informational brochures and directed people to the internet to check out additional information from our sponsors.

The Rite Aid in Santa Monica was a wonderful spot. Upon arrival, a man who had stopped us earlier in the day to ask about the tour was waiting for us. There were also several other patients waiting, and the doctor arrived shortly thereafter. We had a great day, the flow of people was constant but smooth and Dr. Margaret Olsen was busy the entire afternoon. People continued to come until the very end. We screened over 30 patients and found nine suspected actinic keratoses, three suspected basal cell carcinomas, and two suspected melanomas.

Here is a wildfire somewhere south of San Francisco. It was literally throwing flames onto the road. This is right before they closed the interstate.

Santa Barbara is a beautiful city right along the Pacific coastline about an hour north of Los Angeles. We were situated in La Cumbre Plaza, a palm tree-lined mall. Santa Barbara is a very diverse community with a large Hispanic population. It’s a big agricultural area and many people work on the local farms.

Today’s event was very well publicized, which was evident by the overwhelming response to the screenings. When we arrived around noon, we already had 45 people waiting for us in the parking lot, all huddled under a large tree for shade. The event started at 1 PM and by 1:30 we had exceeded our quota for the entire 6-hour event! Lisa and Lindsay of the Santa Barbara Cancer Center helped us with the meet-and-greet responsibilities.

Participants were excited about our sponsor table and we made sure that nobody went away empty handed. It was a great day for all involved — we saw what a tremendous thing we are all doing. Drs. Kim Hurvitz, Peter Ford and Keith Llewellyn found 18 suspected actinic keratoses; 13 suspected basal cell carcinomas, three suspected squamous cell carcinomas, and eight suspected melanomas.

Our first guest of the day was waiting for us when we arrived, but he soon told us he had been waiting a lot longer. He tried to come to our event here last year, but it was full, so he waited all year for us to come back! He was extremely excited to get screened, as were lots of other patients. Santa Cruz is a huge surfing community and people here spend a great deal of time outside. Today presented a fantastic opportunity to educate people on how to be truly safe while enjoying time in the sun. People really took to our free sunscreen samples. Drs. Jim Beckett and Wennie Liao examined 36 people and found 11 suspected keratoses, nine suspected basal cell carcinomas, and a suspected melanoma. And yes, Dr. Beckett surfs too.

Donna Potts and Gordon Analla

Rajiv Bhatnager, MD and Jennifer Boldrick, MD

Today was a private event for the employees of the San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Gordon Analla and Donna Potts met us bright and early to escort us to “Courtyard One,” our screening location. Courtyard One is right next to the International Terminal and we had an amazing view of the airfield, where giant jets arrived and took off.

Donna said she was overwhelmed with positive feedback from airport employees and they were eager to participate in today’s event. The appointments were all booked up for the day and everyone showed up early to see the RV. We answered tons of questions and made sure all the employees, especially the ones that work outdoors, left with sunscreen and information about sun safety. The landscaping department participants were especially eager to take advantage of our free sunscreen samples. One outdoor worker said, “These samples will be perfect for me to put in my pocket while I’m working out on the runway. It gets really hot on that blacktop and I just burn.” In just 2.5 hours, we saw 38 people.

At the end of the tour, Donna surprised us with a private, behind the scenes tour of several airfields. It was amazing to be at the end of the runways as planes were taking off and landing. We also watched a training session where security maneuvers were underway with all sorts of equipment. Very interesting! A big thank you to Donna.

The Road to Healthy Skin Tour made its appearance in downtown San Francisco bright and early on Sunday August 23. We had a wonderful location across the street from the Embarcadero, which provided us with great visibility. The RV was greeted by several locals who were very curious about what it was all about, but we quickly learned that most people in San Francisco don’t wake up until around noon on Sundays. Despite the very slow morning we still were able to screen over 30 thankful guests!

KTSF Channel 26, a Chinese language station, interviewed Dr. Chow and also grabbed a few shots of the inside of the RV — cool!

When we pulled into the Castro Valley Rite Aid (the biggest we’ve ever been to) we had a couple of people waiting for us. By the time Dr. William Chow arrived, we had a nice little line started and were able to begin screening immediately. Dr. Chow was excited to help out. He said he lived a couple miles away and felt honored to be able to help out his neighborhood. The day ran very smoothly and we screened 49 patients, discovering 10 suspected actinic keratoses and six suspected basal cell carcinomas.