Cork student wins national Get SunSmart art competition

A Cork student has been announced as one of this year’s winners of the Get SunSmart! Art Competition.

The Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, announced the winners of the fourth annual Get SunSmart! Art Competition this week, with one Cork student amongst the winners.

The competition, which received entries from all over the country, was run in partnership with Healthy Ireland and the National Cancer Control Programme in the Health Service Executive (HSE), as part of the annual SunSmart campaign, which aims to raise awareness and adoption of skin protective behaviours.

Depending on their age group, children were tasked with either colouring in the SunSmart 5Ss picture or drawing their own picture, illustrating how to be SunSmart.

Amongst this year’s winners was Irene Mariam Mathew, who is 10 years old from Blackrock in Cork city.

She was announced as the winner of the competition’s 2nd to 4th class category.

Ms Murnane O’Connor said that all entrants should be “hugely proud of their achievements” as their entries help to promote sun safety.

“Children’s skin is particularly vulnerable to sun damage, and instilling healthy habits in our children at a young age is vital for their health later in life,” said Ms Murnane O’Connor.

“I want to congratulate our winners, and all the runners up, for their fantastic entries, which displayed such talent, creativity, and originality.

“They should be hugely proud of their achievements in not only doing so well in the competition but in helping to spread our SunSmart message.

“Skin cancer is almost entirely preventable, yet it is the most common cancer in Ireland with over 11,000 new cases per year.

“Reducing rates of skin cancer is a significant part of our drive to improve overall population health, and this starts by instilling good skin protection behaviours in childhood.”