People of Colour have one of the lowest survival rates for skin cancer. This could be attributed to the fact that 75% of melanomas in People of Colour occur in places not exposed to the sun, contradicting popular belief. These include areas such as the soles of the feet and around the nails.
Lets Nail Skin Cancer is a campaign to raise awareness that skin cancer can occur in different places on the body for People of Colour than it can for White people. By increasing awareness, the campaign hopes to also drive diagnosis and close the gap in survival rates.
The international social media campaign encourages people to paint a black dot on their nails after checking them for signs of skin cancer. While the social media campaign focuses on getting people to check their nails, the campaign’s website offers information on all of the places that skin cancer can occur in People of Colour.
The website Symptoms page provides all of this information along with a diverse range of images of what skin cancer might look like on darker skin tones – something that many internet resources currently lack in.
To increase awareness and drive diagnosis beyond the life of the social media campaign, Lets Nail Skin Cancer also launched nail kits that remind people to check underneath their nails for signs of skin cancer every time they use it.