Supporting the roofing community
In 2024, we conducted a survey within the roofing community which highlighted theneed for awareness training! It revealed that 95% of roofers reported experiencing repeated sunburn due to working outdoors–a leading cause of melanoma skin cancer. Additionally, 63% indicated that they never, rarely, or only sometimes use sunscreen, while nearly half admitted that they were unaware of how to check their skin for signs and symptoms of skin cancer.
Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed and fastest-rising cancer in the UK and solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is responsible for an alarming 90% of all skin cancer cases, which puts outdoor workers at a significantly higher risk of developing the disease. Additionally, the predominance of males in the UK’s outdoor workforce raises further concerns, as statistics indicate that the incidence of skin cancer is increasing at twice the rate in men compared to women. Men are also 69% more likely to die from this disease.
We knew we had to help!
We began working with the skin cancer awareness charity, SKCIN, in 2024 having learned about its national Sun Safe Workplaces accreditation programme for employers of outdoor workers. Having conducted training courses for our workforce to highlight the dangers of sun exposure, how we can protect ourselves and the roofing community and what skin cancer might look like, we were awarded the accredititation.
To promote sun safe practices each year, we continue to educate our team and encourage sun safety. We've installed free SPF50 sun cream stations install in all branches with education materials, merchandise, and in-store digital advertising. Most importantly, internal results have been transformational; post training, 0.9% of staff reported not pretecting their skin (down from 28.2%) and 74.8% could now identify skin cancer symptoms (up from 5.8%).
We’re proud to be award-winning for our industry impact
Our Take a Squirt sun-safety campaign has been recognised as Marketing Campaign of the Year at the SHE Awards and Health & Safety Campaign of the Year at the BMN Awards, highlighting our commitment to protecting outdoor workers and customers.
Marie Tudor, CEO of SKCIN, said: “It is great to see the outstanding commitment from SIG Roofing being rewarded as they continue to invest in vital awareness and training of both employees and customers… driving much needed behavioural and attitudinal change that has the power to save lives.
Lotty Pritchard, Marketing Director at SIG Roofing said: "We are excited to continue our support for a charity that excels in raising awareness and educating people about skin cancer. Our focus was on ensuring that our branch staff completed the excellent online training course offered by SKCIN. This course explains how UVA and UVB rays affect our health and teaches how to reduce their risk of skin cancer and recognise the early warning signs.
To promote sun safe practices to our customers, we take on a multi-channel approach. In 2025 alone, news releases reached an audience of over 120,000 through trade publications, while social media activity generated over 17,000 impressions. The ‘Take a Squirt’ initative also saw free SPF50 sun cream stations install in all branches with educational materials, merchandise, and in-store digital advertising. We're looking forward to further supporting the consutruction industry in protecting our outdoor workers against skin cancer."
To find out more about Skcin visit your local SIG Roofing branch or Skcin - The Karen Clifford Melanoma & Skin Cancer Charity