Woman Gets Skin Cancer After 3-year Use of Sunbed

Using sunbed for an hour a day made her feel very healthy, but using it for three years was not so very healthy as this habit gave Anna Taylor, 33, a cancerous tumour on her face. Though Taylor discontinued with the habit later, it was already too late when last January doctors found a cancerous spot on her face. For her an hour a day, six nights a week, was booked to be spent under tanning bulbs in her spare room. Later she switched to tanning lotions.

Doctors at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Sussex had to give her 29 stitches to remove the tumour, size of a 5p, from her cheek which has left her with a mark from her eye to the mouth. “I am desperate to get the message to young girls, teens and even ladies my own age that sunbeds are simply not worth the risk - I know that now,” said Taylor, a radio presenter from West Sussex.

“I think I just felt at the time it wasn't doing any harm because it wasn't the sun, which of course is stupid,” she added.

She first used the sunbed when she was just 18 years, but gave it up in early20s, only to start using suntan lotions. It was in 2010 that she first spotted a mark on her cheek. On considering it as just a blemish, initially, doctors ignored it. But when it grew further, a closer look by a doctor revealed that it was skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma - caused by exposure to UV rays.

Taylor said she is now coming to terms with the scar. She added that there were many self-tan products available in the market and women should understand the risks involved with using sunbeds.

Source-Medindia