Former tanning salon employee develops melanoma skin cancer

A Welsh woman who indulged in the free perks that came with working in a tanning salon has developed skin cancer — and is urging others to avoid sun beds at all costs.

Michelle Stevens, 47, laid in the tanning beds at her salon for 18 minutes at a time between 2014 and 2020, explaining that the only reason she used them was because they were “free.”

And just three years later, in June 2023, she was diagnosed with Stage 1B melanoma, a dangerous skin cancer.

“Everyone else at work was going on them, and I felt better in myself, I felt healthier, which obviously I wasn’t,” Stevens told Kennedy News and Media.

“You were sort of encouraged to use them because you were selling the product.”

In January, Stevens began to notice that she had developed a small, “regular-looking” mole on her left cheek, but didn’t think anything of it until a few months later.

In April, her sister, Kelly Cladingboel, 45, pointed out that it was looking larger than usual, and it was potentially more than a zit.

That’s when Stevens noticed it was darker in color than it had been just months earlier, and it had an irregular shape — so she booked an appointment with her doctor.

The spot was removed in a 45-minute surgery, and after an agonizing four-week wait, she was diagnosed with melanoma.

Studies have shown that exposure to UV radiation from indoor tanning devices is linked to an increased risk for melanoma, according to The American Academy of Dermatology Association.

It can increase the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma by 58% and basal cell carcinoma by 24%.

“When I was diagnosed I just thought of my kids and my grandson,” Stevens said. “I wasn’t ready to go, and I thought that was it, and I was going to die.”

“I wanted to see my kids grow up and see my grandson grow up, and I didn’t know how they were going to cope without me,” the grandmother continued.

Stevens was left with some facial scarring on her cheek and is awaiting another procedure where doctors will cut out a bigger area to make sure they have removed all the cancer cells.

It could take nine months for her face to heal.

“If the results come back clear, then I should be fine, but the dermatologist said if there are still cancerous bits in there then it could then go up to Stage 3,” she shared.

And, although she remains a bit anxious about what’s to come, she is looking for the silver lining in it all.

It turns out that Khloé Kardashian, 39, was diagnosed with melanoma in the same spot last year, and Stevens is grateful the reality star is raising awareness.

Still, she is warning others against using tanning beds, vowing to never step foot in one again herself.

“My message to people ‘addicted’ to sun beds is don’t do it, it’s not worth the risk,” she told Kennedy News.

“It’s health before vanity,” she pleaded. “There’s plenty of lotions for fake tanning that you can use now, I’d go for that option now if you’re wanting to tan.”