Free sun cream given to homeless

Melanoma can start in a mole or in normal skin

Homeless people in Edinburgh are able to get free high-factor sun cream to protect them from the summer rays, a charity has announced.

It is hoped the scheme will help protect homeless people, who spend a lot of time outside, from skin cancer.

Charity Sunwise, which works to cut the numbers of sunburn and sunstroke in the homeless, has been organising the hand-out of free factor 30 sun creams.

The creams will be available through hostels, GPs, hospitals and paramedics.

For the UK's homeless people, sun protection is an unaffordable commodity, not an essential precaution. Gordon Farquhar The Co-operative Pharmacy

Although, national chemist chain, The Co-operative Pharmacy, is paying for and providing the creams and lotions to the scheme, they will not be available from its shops across the capital.

Instead the creams will be available from all homeless outlets in the city.

Malignant melanoma is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the UK, largely due to sun exposure.

Posters to publicise the initiative have been displayed across the city advising homeless people how to obtain the sun cream and after-sun lotion.

Gordon Farquhar, commercial director of The Co-operative Pharmacy, said: "For many of us, slapping on the sun cream is as synonymous with summer as ice cream and days at the beach.

"However, for the UK's homeless people, sun protection is an unaffordable commodity, not an essential precaution.

"As a community pharmacy, we're dedicated to looking after the health and well-being of all the people within the communities we serve which is why we're providing free sun cream and after-sun lotion to support this initiative."