Skin cancer ravaged my face after 9 years of using sunbeds – I beg you don’t make my mistake
FOR years, Carrie Searcy was so desperate to achieve the ‘model tan’ she saw in magazines that she used sunbeds up to three times a week.
And despite warnings from friends, Carrie, 38, who rarely took care of her skin, didn’t listen.
However, last year, Carrie was given a terrifying wake-up call – after an innocent looking white spot on her forehead turned out to be deadly skin cancer.
The mother-of-one, from Kentucky, was forced to have a 10p sized chunk removed from her forehead – leaving her with a four-inch scar on her face.
Devastated, Carrie is now sharing her nightmare ordeal to raise awareness of skin cancer and to urge others not to make the same mistake she did by using sunbeds.
Her warnings come after The Sun launched the Dying For A Tan campaign to highlight the dangers of sunbeds and the signs of skin cancer.
Carrie had been a tanning addict and used sunbeds regularly from the age of 16 to 25.
“For nine years I was obsessed with looking as tanned as I could – I would go on sunbeds three times a week and never wear suncream,” she said.
“I would see models in magazines or on TV and think that was how tanned I needed to be, so would do whatever it took to get there.”
It was more than ten years later, when Carrie first noticed a white ‘waxy looking’ spot on her forehead.
She said: “A couple of years ago I noticed a white spot on my forehead and it started to get bigger, whiter and waxy looking.
“I’d tried everything I could think of to treat it myself but I think deep down I knew what it was, so last month I went to see a dermatologist.”
The dermatologist gave the marketing specialist a biopsy and diagnosed her with basal cell carcinoma – a non-melanoma skin cancer which usually develops in the outermost layer of the skin.
It accounts for 75 per cent of all skin cancers.
Carrie was scheduled her in for surgery just weeks later to remove the cancerous tumour and the skin that surrounds it.
Having always been image conscious, Carrie was left heartbroken that she would have a scar on her face.
She said: “The spot was about the size of my fingertip so I honestly thought the surgery would be fine, but the nurse told me that cancer is like an iceberg – it’s always bigger under the surface.
“They ended up cutting out a chunk about the size of a quarter.
“They’d take the area they thought was the cancer spot and then check it under a microscope to see if there were any cancer cells connecting to the skin the left – they did that twice and after the second time they said it was all clear.”
However, Carrie was devastated when she saw the results of her surgery.
“When I saw the stitches I was terrified – I cried and cried because I realised just how big the scar was and, in turn, how much cancer there must have been,” she said.
“There are two layers of stitches in my wound and the top ones come out next week, whilst the ones underneath will dissolve.
“This whole experience has shown me that tanning isn’t worth it – there are safer alternatives to achieve the tanned look and sunbeds or sun exposure are not necessary.”
Melanoma skin cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the UK and the second most common in people aged 25 to 49.
In the UK, around 147,000 new cases of non-melanoma skin cancer are diagnosed each year.
Experts believe almost nine in ten cases could be prevented if people protect their skin with a high factor sun cream.
Getting sunburned just once every two years triples the risk of melanoma.