WHEN Chloe Broad split from her boyfriend last year, she was heartbroken.
Like many of us after a break-up, she was stressed, exhausted, and spent hours upon hours every week “just moping around”.
She put her extreme fatigue down to her newly-single life, as well as jet lag from her job as an air hostess.
But months later, she discovered the true cause of her tiredness – skin cancer.
“I just wanted to stay in bed, thinking I was jet lagged or heartbroken, but really I didn’t have any energy because my body was fighting a disease I wasn’t aware I had,” the 24-year-old said.
Chloe presumed her busy cabin crew schedule had left her feeling more run-down than usual last year, so she booked a three-week holiday to recover.
She was also dealing with the aftermath of her relationship ending after almost a year, so brushed off her tiredness as heartbreak.
But when Chloe spotted a suspicious-looking mole on her right arm, she visited her GP, who thought her symptoms may have a more sinister cause.
Chloe, from Exmouth, Devon, admitted she previously “abused” sunbeds, forking out hundreds of pounds for a year-round glow.
The then-self-professed “addict” even used tan accelerators, including creams and nasal sprays, to achieve the ultimate bronzed look.
But after nearly six years of hammering sunbeds, Chloe was told she had melanoma – a type of skin cancer which kills almost 2,500 people every year in the UK.
Doctors were luckily able to remove all of the cancerous cells, but the diagnosis led a horrified Chloe to ditch her sunbed habit for good.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Alarming time-lapse video reveals how tiny ‘dark patch’ morphs into melanoma” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” npHeight=”960″ npWidth=”720″ padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6352175145112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]And now she’s warning other people that it’s “not worth the risk”.
She said: “I was exhausted all of the time.
“Obviously being cabin crew, I just put that down to jet lag or fatigue. I’d just finished a busy summer schedule.
“I’d taken three weeks off work because I was so fatigued.
“It’s really common in cabin crew to have jet lag, it’s one of those things.
“In August, my boyfriend and I also split up, which was a big shock that I wasn’t expecting at all.
“That was a stressful time. I just didn’t expect to come out of that relationship and was feeling a bit sorry for myself.
“I thought that could also be having an impact on my energy levels; I was just moping around and I wasn’t eating properly.”
[quote credit=”Chloe Broad”]You just never think it’s going to happen to you[/quote]After going on her first sunbed at the age of 18, Chloe eventually found herself using them more and more until it became a daily occurrence.
“I’ve always loved being super tanned,” she said.
“I always tanned really well, so as soon as I was 18, I started using sunbeds.
“When I moved away from the family home at 19, that’s when I really started tanning.
“I was getting sunbeds every single day. Once I started getting darker I would do the maximum, which was 24 minutes, and I was doing that for six months.
“I loved the way I looked with a tan. I used creams from the start then started using nasal sprays around a year and a half into it.
“I’d do a couple of sprays every day to maintain a better tan.
“They helped me get super, super dark. I was easily spending hundreds of pounds a month on getting a tan.
“I was a sunbed addict.”
In September last year, Chloe noticed a mole on her right arm had changed colour and felt particularly dry and itchy.
Chloe, who hadn’t used a sunbed for around six months before this, visited her GP, who referred her for further testing.
A biopsy confirmed two moles on her right arm and left shoulder were cancerous.
Chloe, who works for Virgin Atlantic and does mostly long haul flights, said: “Even just by looking at it, they were pretty certain it was skin cancer.
“I had abused sunbeds, and very rarely would I put a high SPF on, so I knew I was at risk of skin cancer – you just never think it’s going to happen to you.
“People always say you won’t die of it. It was only when I went to the specialist that they told me melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer.
“Doctors managed to remove it all during the biopsy.”
STARK WARNING
Chloe is currently in remission and will have to undergo biannual checks for cancerous moles on her body for the next five years.
The shock diagnosis has made her ditch sunbeds for good – opting instead to safely achieve a bronzed look from a bottle.
Chloe said: “I’m definitely more paranoid about my moles now.
“I just feel silly that I spent all that money to essentially be more attractive and now have a scar that’s seen almost all the time.
“It’s only in the last month or so that I’ve started feeling better.
“I was fighting off cancer without knowing it because my immune system was so low.
“Now I just use spray tans. I still love a tan, it’s just not worth risking your health for one.
“It’s so much quicker, easier, cheaper and safer to do spray tans. I regret ever going on the beds.”
