Sun Awareness Week – May. 3, 2027

Expected Sun Awareness Week Deals

Sun Awareness Week pivots from commercial deals to crucial fundraising and educational initiatives. Organizations like the Skin Cancer Foundation and American Academy of Dermatology partner with brands like Neutrogena and La Roche-Posay for donation-matching programs and public health campaigns. Expect pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens to offer discounts on broad-spectrum sunscreens and educational materials. Specialty retailers like Coolibar may feature sun-protective clothing sales, while the Melanoma Research Alliance seeks support for groundbreaking research. We will update this page with confirmed live campaigns as May approaches, encouraging direct donations and participation in awareness events.

History of Sun Awareness Week

Since ancient times, the world has understood that the sun provides warmth, life, and vitality. The reasoning behind how this happens differs as per the region and customs of various cultures and is often steeped in mythology. Ancient cultures, from the Egyptians, to the Aztecs, to the American Indians, worshiped the sun.

By the 17th century, scientific understanding began to take over, and two centuries later, people understood that sunlight was not simply based on one source, but was a collection of multiple sources beaming at different wavelengths.

The discovery of ultraviolet light is attributed to a German physicist, Johann Wilhelm Ritter, who noticed that the invisible rays in the spectrum of lights at the violet end were very effective at darkening silver chloride-soaked paper.

So far, the sun has been a source of health, with heliotherapy being practiced for almost 2,400 years. The earliest indication that sunlight might not be that good for your health in the long term occurred during smallpox outbreaks. While scientific evidence did not support this theory (yet), by the 1300s, it was well-known that smallpox treatment required patients (and windows) to be covered with scarlet blankets. As time went by, more and more scientists reported adverse reactions to U.V. rays. By the end of the 19th century, studies were published that proved people working outdoors were more prone to skin cancer.

Still, the fact that sunlight could be harmful was not fully explored until the latter part of the 20th century. By the end of the 20th century, direct sunlight was considered to be a health risk. The contributions of various chemists, biologists, and physicists have led the world to realize that the sun has both harmful and beneficial effects, depending on the exposure to sunlight. The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) ran a national campaign on skin cancer each year — from April to September — called Sun Awareness, and National Sun Awareness Week is a part of it. This campaign is two-pronged — it encourages people to self-test for skin cancer and educates people on the dangers of sunburn and excessive fake tanning.

How Businesses Can Celebrate Sun Awareness Week