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DEVASTATING SURPRISE
I thought I was just tired after an emotional break-up – it was actually cancer
Air hostess Chloe also blamed her tiredness on jet lag - but she couldn't have been more wrong
WHEN Chloe Broad split from her boyfriend last year, she was heartbroken.
Like many of us after a break-up, she was stressed, exhausted, and spent hours upon hours every week "just moping around".
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She put her extreme fatigue down to her newly-single life, as well as jet lag from her job as an air hostess.
But months later, she discovered the true cause of her tiredness - skin cancer.
"I just wanted to stay in bed, thinking I was jet lagged or heartbroken, but really I didn't have any energy because my body was fighting a disease I wasn't aware I had," the 24-year-old said.
Chloe presumed her busy cabin crew schedule had left her feeling more run-down than usual last year, so she booked a three-week holiday to recover.
READ MORE ON SKIN CANCER
She was also dealing with the aftermath of her relationship ending after almost a year, so brushed off her tiredness as heartbreak.
But when Chloe spotted a suspicious-looking mole on her right arm, she visited her GP, who thought her symptoms may have a more sinister cause.
Chloe, from Exmouth, Devon, admitted she previously "abused" sunbeds, forking out hundreds of pounds for a year-round glow.
The then-self-professed "addict" even used tan accelerators, including creams and nasal sprays, to achieve the ultimate bronzed look.
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But after nearly six years of hammering sunbeds, Chloe was told she had melanoma - a type of skin cancer which kills almost 2,500 people every year in the UK.
Doctors were luckily able to remove all of the cancerous cells, but the diagnosis led a horrified Chloe to ditch her sunbed habit for good.
Alarming time-lapse video reveals how tiny 'dark patch' morphs into melanoma
And now she's warning other people that it's "not worth the risk".
She said: "I was exhausted all of the time.
"Obviously being cabin crew, I just put that down to jet lag or fatigue. I'd just finished a busy summer schedule.
"I'd taken three weeks off work because I was so fatigued.
"It's really common in cabin crew to have jet lag, it's one of those things.
"In August, my boyfriend and I also split up, which was a big shock that I wasn't expecting at all.
"That was a stressful time. I just didn't expect to come out of that relationship and was feeling a bit sorry for myself.
"I thought that could also be having an impact on my energy levels; I was just moping around and I wasn't eating properly."
You just never think it's going to happen to you
Chloe Broad
After going on her first sunbed at the age of 18, Chloe eventually found herself using them more and more until it became a daily occurrence.
"I've always loved being super tanned," she said.
"I always tanned really well, so as soon as I was 18, I started using sunbeds.
"When I moved away from the family home at 19, that's when I really started tanning.
"I was getting sunbeds every single day. Once I started getting darker I would do the maximum, which was 24 minutes, and I was doing that for six months.
"I loved the way I looked with a tan. I used creams from the start then started using nasal sprays around a year and a half into it.
"I'd do a couple of sprays every day to maintain a better tan.
"They helped me get super, super dark. I was easily spending hundreds of pounds a month on getting a tan.
"I was a sunbed addict."
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In September last year, Chloe noticed a mole on her right arm had changed colour and felt particularly dry and itchy.
Chloe, who hadn't used a sunbed for around six months before this, visited her GP, who referred her for further testing.
A biopsy confirmed two moles on her right arm and left shoulder were cancerous.
Chloe, who works for Virgin Atlantic and does mostly long haul flights, said: "Even just by looking at it, they were pretty certain it was skin cancer.
"I had abused sunbeds, and very rarely would I put a high SPF on, so I knew I was at risk of skin cancer - you just never think it's going to happen to you.
"People always say you won't die of it. It was only when I went to the specialist that they told me melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer.
"Doctors managed to remove it all during the biopsy."
STARK WARNING
Chloe is currently in remission and will have to undergo biannual checks for cancerous moles on her body for the next five years.
The shock diagnosis has made her ditch sunbeds for good - opting instead to safely achieve a bronzed look from a bottle.
Chloe said: "I'm definitely more paranoid about my moles now.
"I just feel silly that I spent all that money to essentially be more attractive and now have a scar that's seen almost all the time.
"It's only in the last month or so that I've started feeling better.
"I was fighting off cancer without knowing it because my immune system was so low.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
"Now I just use spray tans. I still love a tan, it's just not worth risking your health for one.
"It's so much quicker, easier, cheaper and safer to do spray tans. I regret ever going on the beds."
What is melanoma, what are the symptoms and how can you prevent it?
Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer that has a tendency to spread around the body.
It is diagnosed 16,000 times per year, and tragically takes the lives of 2,340 people per year.
The number of people being diagnosed with melanoma is increasing, and it is the 5th most common cancer in the UK.
But it is also one of the most preventable cancers, with 86 per cent of cases in the UK avoidable.
The best way to protect yourself from melanoma is to be sun safe - wear SPF every day, wear a hat and sunglasses and keep out of the sun in the hottest hours. It is also advised to avoid sunbeds.
People who are fair-skinned, have blue or green eyes, blonde or red hair and a large number of freckles or moles are more likely to get skin cancer.
Surgery is the main treatment for melanoma, particularly if it is found early. This will involve removing the affected tissue in the skin.
Radiotherapy, medicines and chemotherapy are also sometimes used to try and stop the cancer from growing. Treatment depends on the severity of the disease.
What are the symptoms?
The key thing to look out for are changes to an existing mole, or a new mole on your skin.
Most experts recommend using the simple “ABCDE” rule to look for symptoms of melanoma skin cancer, which can appear anywhere on the body.
There are five letters/words to remember:
- Asymmetrical – melanomas usually have two very different halves and are an irregular shape
- Border – melanomas usually have a notched or ragged border
- Colours – melanomas will usually be a mix of two or more colours
- Diameter – most melanomas are usually larger than 6mm in diameter
- Enlargement or elevation – a mole that changes size over time is more likely to be a melanoma
A mole that changes size, shape or colour may be a melanoma.
But other signs to look out for include moles that are:
- Swollen and sore
- Bleeding
- Itchy
- Crusty
How deadly is it?
Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer.
The outlook of a person’s disease depends on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed.
Survival is better for women than it is for men.
“We don't know exactly why this is. It may be because women are more likely to see a doctor about their melanoma at an earlier stage,” says Cancer Research UK.
The charity says that generally, statistics show that in England, more than 85 out of every 100 people (more than 85 per cent) will survive their melanoma for 10 years or more after they are diagnosed.
- Around 100 per cent in England diagnosed with melanoma at stage 1 - when the cancer cells are only in the top layer of skin - will survive for five years or more after diagnosis.This drops to 80 per cent for stage 2.
- Some 70 per cent live for a further five years when they are diagnosed in stage 3, which is when the cancer has started to spread to nearby lymph nodes.
- At stage 4, when the melanoma has spread elsewhere in the body, almost 30 per cent survive their cancer for 5 years or more.
Cancer Research says the stage 4 data does not account for age differences. Age can affect outlook and younger people have a better prognosis than older people.
Age can affect outlook and younger people have a better prognosis than older people.
What is melanoma?
Melanocytes are cells in the skin that give us the colour of our skin because they produce a pigment, known as melanin.
When you sit in the sun, melanocytes produce more pigment (a sun tan), which spreads to other skin cells to protect them from the sun’s rays.
But melanocytes are also where cancer starts.
Too much UV causes sunburn, and this is a sign of damage to the skin’s DNA.
The UV triggers changes in the melanocytes, which makes the genetic material become faulty and cause abnormal cell growth.
People who burn easily are more at risk of skin cancer because their cells do not produce as much pigment to protect their skin.
Those with albinism are at the most risk because their skin produces no pigment at all.
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