A woman suffering from melanoma has issued an urgent warning asking people to take the risks of using sun loungers “seriously”.
Caroline Madden, 58, from Welton, East Yorkshire, appeared on ITV’s This Morning to warn about the potentially fatal dangers of indoor tanning.
During Thursday’s show, presenters Cat Deeley and Ben Shepard said a recent survey had revealed a quarter of Britons admit they still use sunbeds, while two in five of us are currently unaware of the life-threatening risks.
Caroline was 18 when she first used a sunbed at her local squash club. She continued to use the sunbeds regularly for about ten years.
“I used it because I felt better tanned,” she admitted.
Pictured: Caroline Madden, 58, from Welton, East Yorkshire, appeared on ITV’s This Morning to warn about the potentially fatal dangers of using sun loungers.
“You would get a token and go on for about half an hour and maybe sleep.”
Caroline has very pale skin and is naturally blonde, which she said made it harder for her to achieve a glow using makeup or artificial tanning products.
“Makeup back then was horrible, it was like glue and there were no spray tans or tinted moisturizers, so (tanning beds) were the only way to get a tan,” she recalled.
Dermatologist Dr Emma Wedgeworth also appeared on the show to emphasize the dangers posed by using tanning beds which emit much more “intense” UV rays than those that come from sunlight.
“The way it hits the skin is more intense than average sunlight,” he explained. ‘A couple of minutes on a sun lounger is equivalent to a few hours in the Mediterranean’
Caroline first suspected there might be a problem in 2009, when her podiatrist noticed a large new mole on her foot.
After her GP encouraged her to get the mole checked at the hospital, Caroline was shocked when she was told she needed a piece of skin removed.
A subsequent test revealed a diagnosis of stage three melanoma and Caroline returned to hospital to have a hole “the size of a tennis ball” removed from her foot.
The show’s presenters Ben Shepard (left) and Cat Deeley (right) told viewers about a recent survey which revealed a quarter of Britons still use sunbeds.
Caroline, pictured, was diagnosed in 2009 after noticing a new mole on her foot which turned out to be melanoma.
The melanoma had travelled through her body, meaning Caroline was also forced to undergo surgery to remove lymph nodes in her groin.
She then successfully received chemotherapy and was discharged in early 2018. Sadly, however, just a few months after receiving a clean bill of health, she received news that the cancer had returned and was in her pelvis and groin.
When host Ben asked her what advice she would give to people considering using them, she replied: “Don’t do it!”
“We didn’t know the risks in those days, it was before the Internet, we had no idea,” he insisted.
“I think as long as there are sun loungers, people will use them,” he added.
‘Luckily I had no knowledge of anything to do with melanoma until I got it. People don’t take it seriously.
Also appearing on the show was Dr Emma Wedgeworth, who explained how dangerous tanning beds in particular can be for developing skin cancer.
‘They say it’s just skin cancer, but it’s one of the deadliest cancers. You can’t get rid of melanoma.
Gary Lipman, president of the Sunbed Association, told the program that sunbeds are now well regulated in the UK.
They said staff are trained to screen potential customers to assess their risk of developing skin cancer.
Gary went on to say that he “wish” that outdoor tanning “when more sunburns occur” were also regulated.
Dr Emma Wedgeworth explained: ‘Sunbeds are really damaging to our skin and we know that when we use them we increase our risk of melanoma, other skin cancers and ageing.’
“If you stimulate your melanocytes, the pigment-producing cells, enough to produce a tan and you do it repeatedly, that will put you at risk.”
“It’s a bit like smoking: it’s better to smoke two cigarettes a day than 20, but in an ideal world we wouldn’t smoke at all and we wouldn’t use indoor tanning lotion.”