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Melanoma Action & Support Scotland (MASScot)

Hello and welcome to Melanoma Action and Support Scotland, known as MASScot.

The group has been in existence since 2003, when it was set up by Prof Rona MacKie with assistance from Tak Tent (Cancer Support Scotland). We became a registered charity in 2009.

The people involved with MASScot are all volunteers, who currently have or had the disease or a close member of their family has had the condition.

The aims of MASScot are;

Providing support for skin cancer patients and their carers.

Raising general public awareness of skin cancers and in particular melanoma.

Increasing prevention and early detection.

Ensuring best treatment for patients at all stages in the disease.

Improving medical education in dermatology in Scotland. 

Campaigning to have a Clinical Nurse Specialist available to all patients in Scotland.

To continue to campaign for the licensing of sun beds, ensuring that where they exist the strength of the lamp is more in keeping with Scottish weather. That the time available per session and per week is controlled, staff are trained, required to prevent exposure of those under 18 years of age and ensure that all users wear appropriate goggles.  All potential users should be shown the statutory notices and advised against over exposure and the risks of sunbed use.  

The above is done at the Scottish Parliament and Health Boards.

We are also campaigning to have VAT removed from sun protection creams and to have the strength of sun bed lamps reduced. These issues are controlled by the European Parliament. 

To help achieve the aims:-

We provide assistance and materials to educational establishments, from nursery to higher education, to teach sun safety.  

We participate in outdoor events where we speak to the public and provide doses of sun creams free of charge. We also distribute materials on skin cancer from recognised experts, such as Cancer Research UK and the British Association of Dermatologists.

We fund raise in a variety of ways to support this work and are delighted to have been recipients of donations. 

To contact us telephone 0773 823 1260. We will take calls between 8am and 11pm any day including weekends and public holidays.  If we cannot answer straight away please leave a message with your name and telephone number. We will return your call. We will ask for you by name and use our first name to introduce ourselves- Leigh or Liz, but we will not disclose the nature of the call to protect your privacy. 

The registered address is:

17 Cairnhill Rd
Bearsden 
East Dunbartonshire 
G61 1AU
Email:   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

MASScot is a Scottish Registered Charity number SCO 040286

www.masscot.org.uk