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Tanning addict mum who survived cancer but went back on sunbeds now has cancer again

Carmen Oakes was told a red-coloured mole on her back was cancerous but after a successful operation she went right back to the tanning salon and she now has stage four metastatic melanoma

A sunbed addict mum has said she was ‘stupid’ to get back on tanning beds after she was diagnosed with cancer for the second time.

Carmen Oakes was told a red-coloured mole on her back was cancerous in June 2014 but after a successful operation she went right back to the tanning salon. Now she says she mis-used her “second chance at life” by refusing to ditch her almost-weekly sunbed sessions after a second more serious diagnosis. The 48-year-old couldn’t give up her 30-year sunbed habit and ‘played with fire ‘ by maintaining tanning sessions almost every week and now has stage four cancer.

Mum-of-two Carmen was diagnosed with stage four metastatic melanoma in January after a four-inch mass was found in her right lung. She says she regrets not heeding her first warning and blames sunbeds for her devastating diagnosis – warning others to “avoid ruining their skin” with their powerful UV rays. Carmen, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, said: “I was playing with fire, but me being stupid, I thought ‘oh well, they’ve just cut it out.

“I had a second chance in life so I still went back on [tanning beds]. I was naughty because I’d just had melanoma in my back. I should never have gone back on them. It got to the stage where me and my hubby were going away for Christmas or going out for a night out or to a spa and we’d have the odd sunbed.

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