by KYW’s Michelle Durham

A local dermatologist is warning parents and teens about the dangers of tanning. She is approaching youth in a different way.

Springhouse dermatologist Margo Weishar:

“I think the message has been very clearly sent to parents about protecting their very young children, but my concern is when the kids get old enough that the parents are no longer putting the sun protection on and they have to make the decision for themselves.”

Margo is a mom, too, and she decided to develop a peer mentoring system to remind teens to use sunscreen, and 19-year-old Lina Bereslav is helping:

“Our friends go indoor tanning all the time and we didn’t know enough about the dangers of the sun, so we are reaching out to people our own age using mediums like Facebook to get people to listen up.”

There is good reason for teens to listen up because Dr. Weishar is seeing patients in their 20′s with melanoma, a potentially fatal skin cancer.

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