A woman wants to let everyone know that artificially tanning yourself is dangerous for your health. April Brown Pulliam, 42 years old, learned from her lesson after she got addicted to tanning for about twenty years, the Daily Mail reports.
Pulliam, who’s from Bolivar, Tennessee, was exposed to the trivialities of tanning when she was just twelve years old. She would cover herself with baby oil and lie in the backyard in hopes of erasing her paleness and coloring in the tan.
When Pulliam turned eighteen, she switched from the garden to the sunbeds, where she would lie down and get her tan multiple times a week. She continued to do this routine until she was diagnosed ten years ago, with melanoma.
Pulliam, who’s a mother of two children, discovered that her melanoma could potentially take her life. She admitted that she never wore sunscreen whenever she would go outside because she wanted to take advantage of the sun exposure to tan herself further.
Pulliam told Daily Mail, “Don't do it. Don't let anyone talk you into it. Don't let anyone convince you that you would look better with a tan. Pale is beautiful and, most importantly, healthy. Trying to tan my skin is the poorest choice I have ever made and could have cost me my life and may yet.”
During the peak of her addiction, Pulliam would spend $30 to $40 for ten sessions and she would go for at least four times a week to the tanning salon.
Pulliam said, “Every year, I began earlier in the year and continued longer into the fall. When I couldn't go to the tanning bed, I tried to make sure I worked in the yard in a tank top and shorts to maximize my chance of getting more sun. Never with sunscreen.”
The World Health Organization had already warned people about the dangers of getting too much sun exposure. Even in tanning beds, they still contain ultraviolet rays that have been connected to the formation of skin cancer.
WHO also stated that radiation of ultraviolet rays can also cause cataracts, ageing, and the suppression of the immune system. Although, the development of skin cancer is obviously the worst.
Pulliam blogged about her experiences and her cancer scare on Scary Mommy, a parenting website. She admitted that she was aware of the potential consequences, she just didn’t think that it would happen to her.
After a friend found out about a spot that was shaped like a horseshoe on her skin, she immediately booked an appointment with her doctor.
She said, “I wasn't laying daily, and my skin, for all my efforts, never looked tan to me. It always looked red. In my mind, the people who had increased chances of developing cancer and prematurely aging their skin were the ones whose skin resembled leather.”
Pulliam added, “I started laying in the nineties when tanning beds were far too common. Everyone was doing it or at least wanted to. Skin cancer, to most everyone I knew, wasn't real cancer. Even today, I hear people refer to it as ‘just skin cancer.’”
Pulliam had to take her annual topical chemotherapy, which involves a cream that she has to apply directly to her affected skin.
At first, she was obviously aghast and speechless at the discovery of her melanoma. The melanoma was successfully removed. But she still had to have it check with a dermatologist.
Pulliam said, “I was sick. Physically ill. I had two small children who were just starting school. I was scared to death for them.”
She continued, “I have a family history of cancer on both sides. Lung and breast cancer. This just brought it home for me. It shouldn't have taken a cancer diagnosis to make me stop, but it did.”
Pulliam received her prognosis and she was cleared for now. She still had to be very careful with exposing herself. She had to undergo multiple freezes, biopsies, and surgeries. She even had all her spots, even those that are not “precancerous” removed from her.
She said, 'It's a never-ending cycle. I quit tanning in 2007 immediately following my melanoma diagnosis, but the damage has been done and the effects continue to appear.”
