Skin cancer spreads to lungs: Mother warns against tanning beds and sunburn
England - After being diagnosed with skin cancer, a mother of three appeals to young people not to make the same mistakes she did.
According to the New York Post, Englishwoman Claire Turner (43) had regularly used sunbeds and suffered repeated sunburns.
She first sought medical help after feeling pain in her right shoulder last December.
The doctors initially suspected a torn ligament. But when swelling appeared on her shoulder weeks later, she went for another examination.
"It was terrible. I was expecting the worst," she said, and unfortunately her fears came true: she was diagnosed with advanced cancer.
She received the devastating diagnosis in January of this year. The doctors quickly informed her that the cancer had already spread to her liver, thighs, lymph nodes and shoulders.
Claire Turner appeals to people to be aware of the dangers of UV radiation
"I was simply shaken. It threw me off track, I was just shocked. [...] Sun damage caused my cancer. It could have been avoided," she says emotionally.
Since the diagnosis, she has undergone several immunotherapies, but had to briefly interrupt her last treatment last August. In the same month, she learned that the cancer had now also spread to her lungs.
Although the treatments have slowed the progression of the disease and caused some tumors to shrink, Claire now lives from day to day.
Nevertheless, she continues to cautiously enjoy the sun: "I still sit outside, but always in the shade, wearing a hat and covering my shoulders. You just have to know."
Today, Claire has made it her mission to raise awareness of the dangers of sunbeds and intense UV radiation.