Young mother used sunbeds five times a week... now she is facing death from cancer



She once used sunbeds up to five times a week because she thought her tan 'made her look healthy'.



But Joanne Cobb's obsession with having a golden glow has left her facing a possible death sentence.



She has found herself battling nodular melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, and has had to accept that her four young boys could be left without a mother.



'Tanorexic': Mrs Cobb with, from left, Alfie, Jack, Harry and Archie

The disease spread through her blood into her groin and pelvis and she had to have glands all over her body removed.



Doctors have given her the all-clear for now but say there is a 50 per cent chance the disease will return within five years - and if it does, it will be fatal.



'I feel like I am living on borrowed time,' said Mrs Cobb, 28. 'I worry all the time about what will happen if I die. Missing out on my boys growing up is the thing that devastates me most.

'The thought of them being left without a mother makes me cry.'



Mrs Cobb, a mother to Jack, ten, Harry, three, and twins Alfie and Archie, 21 months, said she was 'indescribably angry' with herself for being what she calls a tanorexic.



Possible death sentence: Mrs Cobb has had to accept that her four young boys could be left without a mother

I just wish I could turn back the clock,' she said. 'If I hadn't ignored the risks I would never have found myself in this position.



'I try not to think about it, but the reality is that my life will be a lot shorter thanks to skin cancer.'



Mrs Cobb, from Gravesend, Kent, was 15 when she first went on a sunbed and she soon became addicted to having a tan.

Between the ages of 21 and 23, she used sunbeds five times a week. On holidays abroad she would spend hours in the sun with little skin protection.



'I would definitely describe myself as tanorexic,' she said. 'It reached the point where I would feel panicked every time my tan started to fade.' Days after her wedding to Andrew, 33, in July 2009, she discovered a mole on her leg was a malignant melanoma.



'I immediately made the connection between the condition and all those years I had spent in the sun,' she said.



'I vowed there and then never to go on a sunbed again.'



In April this year Mrs Cobb was told the cancer had spread and she had lymph nodes removed. If the cancer returns, doctors say there will be nothing they can do.



Her husband, who is a restaurant manager, said: 'I try to stay positive and hope.'



Caroline Cerny, from Cancer Research UK, said: 'Every time you use a sunbed you damage the DNA in your skin, increasing your risk of developing skin cancer and speeding up the ageing process.'

