Corina Lake’s story, while heartbreaking, is one of resilience. She lost her father to melanoma after decades of watching him continually have cancerous spots removed. Some of her childhood memories are of her father going to doctor’s appointments as normal occurrences. Other childhood memories from growing up in Panama City, Panama include going to the beach all day long yet no one using sunscreen. Corina reiterates in her culture the misconception exists that there isn’t a need for sunscreen because no one was getting sunburned.
Corina’s resilience is palpable when hearing about how she has turned the loss of her father into an opportunity for education about melanoma and advocacy for safe sun habits. She is the friend and family member reminding everyone to apply, re-apply, and apply the sunscreen again! What drew her to IMPACT Melanoma was the simple things Corina can do to help that make a big difference. Beyond reminding her loved ones to wear sunscreen and hats whenever outside, it’s also about educating them about sun damage that can occur anytime they are outside regardless of whether it’s a full day at the beach or a short run in the park.
Corina loves to run and joined Team IMPACT in running the 2024 Boston Marathon. She can’t overstate how grateful she is for the work IMPACT Melanoma does to raise awareness around the preventability of melanoma. She was surprised by people’s lack of awareness and how she was compelled to further advocate for prevention. While running the marathon fulfilled one of Corina’s biggest dreams, she never lost sight of how important it was to run for Team IMPACT to raise money and awareness about this preventable disease that took her father
