15/06/2026
For as long as I can remember I was obsessed with having a tan, I absolutely believed I looked better with a tan and I would chase this at every opportunity. In my late teens I began sun beds - as a student we hired one and had one in our kitchen!!! Can you believe at my second surgery I met a man having the same procedure as me and his job 20 years previously was to rent and deliver sun beds to homes!!
I thought I was invincible - I knew about skin cancer but not about how horrendous it can be. Since I’ve started my melanoma journey I’ve known more people dying rather than surviving.
I was even on Jeremy Vine the other day. My first sentence was ‘I couldn’t disagree more’. There is no safe sun bed use. Of course some factors increase your risk of skin cancers - skin tone, extent of use, skin exposure and burning as a child but imo sun beds should be illegal.
If you ever think I look brown it will be fake. Fake tan and 50SPF are my daily staples. And the night before a holiday I will be busy fake tanning. Alongside my daughter.
