WINNING SCHOOLS TO BECOME MORE SUNSAFE

Three Perth primary schools will share in $8500 prize money and a year's supply of sunscreen as part of a Suncorp Bank competition that encouraged students to teach others to be SunWise.

The Suncorp Bank's SunWise Ad Search competition invited students to design a newspaper advertisement that showed how they could protect their families and friends from the sun's harmful rays.

Felicity from Armadale Primary School won first prize and her colourful and highly creative ad will be printed in next week's edition of the Comment News.

Suncorp Bank Chief Executive Officer David Foster congratulated Felicity and said his team had received more than 1000 entries in the competition.

"It was a fantastic response and it's encouraging to see so many young students are passionate about raising awareness of skin cancer," Mr Foster said.

"Many of the entries were creative in demonstrating ways to protect against skin cancer and the harmful effects of the sun.

"Australia has one of the highest rates of melanoma in the world, with Western Australia having the second highest rate behind Queensland.

"Annually around 130 West Australians die from melanoma and more than 1000 new cases of the deadly cancer are diagnosed.

"The judges and I were pleased to see the skin cancer message is well and truly sinking in to the minds of the next generation."

Armadale Primary School principal Wayne Walpole said he was delighted his school had placed first in the competition as the prize money would help better protect students from the sun at school.

"We are very proud of 12 year old student Felicity and I look forward to using the funds to spread the SunWise message at Armadale Primary," Mr Walpole said.

The list of winners are as follows:

First Place

Felicity from Armadale Primary School

Felicity will receive a $250 Suncorp Kids Savings Account and Armadale Primary School will receive $5000 to keep the school sun safe plus one year's supply of sunscreen.

Second Place

Katie from Mt Pleasant Primary School

Katie will receive a $150 Suncorp Kids Savings Account and Mt Pleasant Primary School will receive $2500 to keep the school sun safe plus one year's supply of sunscreen.

Third Place

Eunice from Connolly Primary School

Eunice will receive a $50 Suncorp Kids Savings Account and Connolly Primary School will receive $1000 to keep the school sun safe plus one year's supply of sunscreen.

The following list of Highly Commended placegetters will each receive a $50 Suncorp Kids Savings Account plus six months supply of sunscreen for their school:

Jasmine, Willandra Primary School

Zoe, Doubleview Primary School

Maggie, Armadale Primary School

Melanie, Connolly Primary School.

For more information about Suncorp's SunWise campaign visit www.suncorp.com.au/sunwise

NB: Figures have been rounded off to the nearest whole number.

*The SunWise Survey was conducted by Pure Profile.

**Cancer incidence and mortality in Western Australia, 2006