'I was shocked to be diagnosed with a malignant melanoma after visiting sunbeds twice-weekly'

By Sadie Nicholas for MailOnline and Alison Smith Squire for MailOnline

From the age of 16, Jenna Gurney's twice-weekly visit to the tanning salon - spending 14 minutes (the maximum allowed) on a sunbed, costing 50p a minute - was something of a ritual.

For £14 a week, she managed to keep her bronzed glow, adding to it with regular holidays in the sun where she would console herself that if she did get a little sunburned, that it would soon 'go brown anyway'.

When, at 21, Jenna noticed that a large, flat mole on her stomach had grown and become flaky, she was concerned enough to go to her GP. But she never dreamed she would be told she had skin cancer.

Regrets: Jenna Gurney, left, and Darina Mulligan, right, were determined to maintain a year-round tan but now regret their addiction after Jenna developed a potentially deadly malignant melanoma and Darina too had a melanoma removed

Experts say a 'binge-tanning' epidemic is to blame for increased rates in skin cancer cases

In fact, the cash administrator had the deadliest form, a malignant melanoma, which is the most common form of cancer affecting women in their 20s.

Jenna, who today is as zealous in her determination to protect herself in the sun as she once was to get a tan, describes how the prospect of a death sentence has made her wish she never used a sunbed.

'When I was a teenager, my friends and I used sunbeds all the time. It was important to have a tan all year round and to top it up for nights out.

'I would always go somewhere sunny on holiday and getting a tan was my main aim. Then, when I got home, I wanted to keep the tan, so I started using sunbeds.

'I would use them twice a week on average. When I used sunbeds, I used an intensifier cream instead of any kind of protective sun lotion.

'On holiday, I did put on sun lotion, but never worried about reapplying it regularly or using a high factor.' But then came a trip to her GP that changed everything.

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The doctor was immediately concerned when he saw the mole, advising that it should be removed.

'I still didn't think much of it,' she says. 'Even though the risks were at the back of my mind, I'm just one of those people who think it will never happen to me.

'But then the results came back and a nurse told me I had been diagnosed with a malignant melanoma. It was a shock because I just hadn't been expecting it. As soon as someone says cancer, you think: "Am I going to die?" It's scary.'

Jenna had to go into hospital to have an area of skin around the mole removed, along with lymph nodes from under her arm.

She then endured a nerve-racking wait to find out if the cancer had spread. Fortunately, it hadn't. Since then, she has had to undergo six-monthly check-ups.

Today, the 28-year-old still loves a tan, but prefers to fake it than run any risk of harming her skin in the sun or on a sunbed.

'If I could go back and have my time again, I would never use sunbeds,' she says.

'I wouldn't want to go through the stress and worry of having cancer for the sake of a tan.

'I've always liked the look of a healthy glow, but I am now really careful in the sun, stay in the shade and religiously apply sun lotion.

'I hope my story will make others aware of the risks of melanoma from using sunbeds.'

'Heavy price'

Darina Mulligan was another young woman determined to preserve a year-round golden tan.

She started using sunbeds 13 years ago because she wanted to improve her look, but today she is paying a heavy price for her vanity.

'The irony is that, probably as a result of using them, I have a three-inch scar on the inside of my right knee where I had a melanoma removed last August,' says Darina, 31, who runs her own event contracting company and lives in Balham, South London.

'As a teenager, I loved to get a tan on family holidays and associated looking well with having a golden glow. It was purely a vanity thing, but was naive considering I have fair skin and freckles.

'The year I went to university, I'd just returned from a holiday in Spain and a friend suggested that since I had such a lovely tan, I should keep it topped up by having a few sunbed sessions.

'I remember thinking: "Great, now I don't even have to go on holiday to get a tan and I'll still be brown at Christmas."

'Unfortunately, after a couple of visits to the tanning salon, I was lured by an offer to buy a block of ten sessions at a reduced price.

'Even though I didn't use sunbeds every week, I used them regularly until I was 23, going through phases of intensive use.

'Particularly before and after holidays, I'd go on the sunbed in the belief that it would help build up a tan in the first instance, so that I had a head start when I hit the beach abroad and then maintain my colour when I returned home.

'When I look back at the logic I used it horrifies me, but the awareness about the risks of sunbeds and skin cancer wasn't the same at that time. I was no different to my friends - we all liked to look tanned.

'The only reason I stopped using sunbeds was because I went to Australia after university and met a friend who told me I really shouldn't be out in the sun.

'When I asked why not, she pulled down her T-shirt - I suddenly realised I'd never seen her with her decolletage exposed - to reveal a frightening-looking chest covered in dark pigmentation marks and lines.

Shaken

'She explained that she'd been a surfer in her 20s with a constant tan, and this damage had appeared only in recent years.'

Darina adds: 'After that, I stopped using sunbeds and took more care in the sun. But a year ago I noticed that a freckle I've always had on the inside of my right knee had changed shape, size and colour.

'It had always been dark and circular, but the edges had lightened and spread to give it a rugged outline.

'I'd done some work helping to launch three mobile cancer awareness units with Cancer Research, and had taken more notice of my moles as a result. Thank goodness I did.

'By August, I was concerned enough about my mole to see a nurse at a mole clinic, who advised me to have it removed immediately.

'My GP referred me to a specialist and, thanks to private healthcare, within a week I'd had the mole removed under local anaesthetic. As the surgeon excised it, he said he was certain it was a melanoma, and when the biopsy results confirmed this, I had to have another operation to remove the surrounding tissue.'

Luckily for Darina, the cancer hadn't spread, but she was shaken by what had happened.

'There's no proof that using sunbeds or sunbathing caused my cancer, but there's every chance that it contributed to it. If I knew 13 years ago what I know now, I would never have used a sunbed at all.'