Skcin – The Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity is a UK-based charity dedicated to the prevention and early detection of skin cancer, including melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers.
🌟 History
Founded: 2006 In Memory of: Karen Clifford, who sadly passed away from melanoma at age 61. The charity was set up by Karen’s family to raise awareness and tackle the growing skin cancer crisis in the UK.
🎯 Mission and Purpose
Skcin’s primary aims are to:
Prevent Skin Cancer – through education about sun safety and UV protection. Promote Early Detection – by training individuals and professionals to identify early signs of skin cancer, improving survival rates. Change Behaviours – embed sun safety into communities, schools, workplaces, and public health culture.
Skcin offers a suite of five national accreditation programmes focused on sun protection, early skin cancer detection, and education across different sectors:
Tailored for pre‑school and nursery settings, this is a free, annual accreditation. It uses engaging resources—such as songs and activities—to teach young children sun-safe behaviour and supports policy adoption in nurseries ().
A free, annual accreditation designed for primary schools. It helps schools implement sun-safe policies, educate children about UV risks, and reinforce safe habits at home .
A paid, annual accreditation for employers with outdoor workers, designed to help meet duty-of-care obligations.
It includes:
Risk assessment tools, Bespoke sun protection policies, Employee training modules, Metrics, reporting, and renewal guidance .
💇♀️ 4. MASCED Accreditation
Melanoma And Skin Cancer Early Detection– a £25 online training + certification aimed at hair, health, beauty, and aesthetics professionals. The course teaches how to:
Spot early signs of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer Encourage clients to seek medical advice Promote UV prevention strategies Includes support materials and is endorsed by dermatologists .
📱 5. The Skcin App & MySkinDoctor
While not accreditation schemes, these tools support public education and access to dermatology services. (Primarily awareness & support.)
Over the years Skcin have developed a unique, innovative and multi-channel approach to raising awareness through educational intervention. This began with the development of the UK’s first ever, national accreditation programme in 2012 – Sun Safe Schools. They believed their mission should begin with future generations by planting the seeds of sun safety in primary education and they remain incredibly passionate and committed to this initiative to this day.
Following it’s huge success, they went on to develop solutions for other key ‘high risk’ and ‘influential’ public and private sectors to generate the greatest impact they could, driving skin cancer awareness and education, into the hearts of communities nationwide.
