SIG Roofing won the 'Marketing Campaign of the Year' award at the Safety & Health Excellence (SHE) Awards 2025 for its ‘Take a Squirt’ initiative, promoting skin cancer awareness among roofing industry colleagues and customers.
In 2024, SIG Roofing partnered with SKCIN, a charity specialising in the prevention and early detection of skin cancer. They carried out research with their roofing contractor customers to understand how many considered sun protection whilst working outdoors and followed this up with a training program and awareness activity across their 107 roofing branches. All branches were also fitted with
sun cream dispensers and free sun cream giveaways, and visitors were encouraged to ‘Take a Squirt’ of SPF sun cream before working outdoors.
“We were thrilled to win ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’ at the Safety & Health Excellence Awards 2025, which took place at The Vox in Birmingham on April 9th. This award recognises our ‘Take a Squirt’ initiative and our ongoing efforts to promote skin cancer awareness among our colleagues and customers.
“When we learned that SKCIN was launching a sun-safe workplace accreditation program last year for employers of outdoor workers, we immediately decided to join the initiative and obtain accreditation. Solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is responsible for a staggering 90% of all skin cancer cases, which means that outdoor workers are among the highest-risk groups for developing this disease. Additionally, the predominance of males in the UK outdoor workforce raises concerns, as statistics show that the incidence of skin cancer is increasing at twice the rate in men compared to women, and men are 69% more likely to die from the disease. At SIG Roofing, we employ staff who work outdoors in our yards across our 107 branches nationwide. They frequently interact with roofers, who are mostly male and spend long periods exposed to UV radiation.
“Last year, we encouraged our branch colleagues to participate in training focused on sun-safe practices, recognising the early signs of skin cancer, and the importance of conducting regular self-examinations. We installed sunscreen stations in all branches to provide free SPF 30+ sunscreen for both colleagues and customers, and this service will continue in 2025.
“We hope that cumulatively, all these initiatives will help make a difference.”
Said Lotty Pritchard, Marketing Director for SIG Roofing.
As we experience many months of bad weather In the UK, we can too easily become complacent about using sun protection. However, it’s a fact that skin cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, and the facts surrounding it are alarming. It is the UK’s fastest-rising cancer, and annually, there are over 230,000 cases of non-melanoma and 17,500 cases of melanoma (the deadliest form of skin cancer) diagnosed. It’s one of the biggest killing cancers in the 15-34 age group.
