A MUM who used sunbeds twice a week to get a base tan for the summer has urged others not to make her mistake.
Shannon Masterton, 29, from Derry, Northern Ireland, was told her beauty regime had led to the most deadly form of skin cancer.
She admitted she would use sunbeds in the run up to summer and before girls’ holidays to top up her tan.
However, after being diagnosed with melanoma in January 2020, the mum-of-two now says that having a tan is not worth risking your life for.
Shannon says her life flashed before her eyes and she imagined her kids, Maebh, nine, and Dara, seven, growing up without their mum.
The retail assistant said: “I started using sunbeds in my early twenties in the run up to summer time so that I had a nice tan.
Read more on tanning risks
“I wouldn’t say I used the excessively, it was just twice a week to get a bit of a tan.”
In the run-up to a girl’s holiday to Benidorm, Shannon noticed a mark on her leg.
She said: “It was more like a freckle than a mole and when I was on holiday it started to feel itchy.
“But I didn’t think too much of it.
“My friend who is a nurse told me to get it checked out but I ended up putting it off and didn’t get round to it.
“The following year, I did the same thing and started using sunbeds before my holiday.”
Shannon started noticing the same itchy feeling she’d had the previous year, however it eventually turned to a burning sensation.
She says that the fear of finding out what she might be told by the doctors was putting her off going to get it checked out.
Shannon said: “After a while, the area of my leg where I felt the burning sensation started to go numb.”
During a night out in Christmas 2019, Shannon’s nurse friend, Aine, was shocked to discover she hadn’t got the mole checked out.
“[She] forced me to go on the following Monday morning,” Shannon said.
“She is truly the reason that my kids still have a healthy mum here today.
“The doctor took some pictures and sent them to the dermatologist. Within a matter of days I received a call to go in so they could take a look.
“At the appointment I had three moles removed and biopsied and the following week I got called in urgently to receive my results.
“I knew something must have been seriously wrong and my heart sank.
“I went to the appointment with my mum and the doctor diagnosed me with melanoma.”
Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer, but not the most common.
Still, around 16,000 new cases of melanoma skin cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year, and six Brits die from it every day.
Shannon said: “My life flashed before my eyes.
“I never thought it would lead to me being diagnosed with skin cancer. You just never think that it will happen to you.”
Shannon was asked if she had been using sunbeds and claims the doctor said they were almost 100 per cent sure that her cancer was due to UV exposure.
Shannon said: “I didn’t think anything of my sunbed use.
“I thought because I only went on twice a week and didn’t use them all year round it would be fine.
“I never imagined in a million years that this would be happening to me.
“I have never felt fear like I felt when I was told that I had skin cancer.
“I underwent the procedure where they removed the cancerous tissue and surrounding tissue to ensure that it was all removed.
“They also had to remove some of my nerves because it had gone so far in. I am now completely numb on that part of my leg.
“I’m so lucky that I caught it early enough and went to the doctors when my friend forced me too.
“It could have been a very different story.
“I am so much more cautious now. I am always covered up and so are my kids.
“It’s just not worth the risk.
“I’m in the all clear at the minute and I am grateful to the NHS for the regular check-ups I still have to this day.
“I’m also grateful to my friend, Aine, and everything she done for me. Life could have been very different if I didn’t have an earth angel as a friend.”
Read More on Trending In The News
According to Cancer Research UK, melanoma skin cancer risk is 16-25 per cent higher in people who have used a sunbed – which is why Trending In The News’s Fabulous campaigns against Dying For a Tan.
Using them before the age of 35 increases your chance of developing melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, by 87 per cent.
