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Mum’s sunbed cancer warning

by Brian Lashley
6/ 8/2008

A YOUNG mum who developed skin cancer after using sunbeds is helping to promote safe tanning.

Jenny Murray, 28, launched a street theatre drama called Sunbed Trauma in Piccadilly Gardens which featured a mock news crew reporting on skin cancer dangers.

She used sunbeds two or three times a week as a teenager for about six months, before developing a rash on her chest. Two years later, she was diagnosed with skin cancer and had to have laser treatment, then surgery.

Jenny, who lives off Mottram Road, Hyde, has a six-month-old son, Jack, and has been given the all-clear. Now she is acting as an ambassador for the Cancer Research UK project.

Jenny said: "If you are really worried about being pale, use fake tan."

Sunbed Trauma features a TV news crew attending a ‘crime scene’ to report that a young person is willingly damaging their skin and increasing their risk of cancer for the sake of a tan.

Aimed at teenagers, the dialogue addresses many of the arguments young people use to justify the need to have a tan, forming a key part of Cancer Research UK’s SunSmart campaign. Malignant melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, is the most common cancer in people aged 15 to 34 and can be fatal.

People who start using sunbeds under the age of 35 increase their risk of skin cancer by about 75 per cent. In the north west, about 950 people are diagnosed with malignant melanoma each year.

Caroline Cerny, from SunSmart, said: "Using a sunbed once a month or more can increase a person’s risk of skin cancer by more than half."