The NHS saved my life when I got skin cancer but I still sunbathe – I lie and tell my doc my glow is ‘just fake tan’
GETTING ready for a night out, Sarah Boyton carefully applies her makeup, hoping to disguise her wrinkles, and then winds a scarf around her neck.
It’s the only way she hopes she can look younger than her 57 years but admits that despite these efforts she worries she looks far older.
Sarah has been addicted to tanning since she was 17 when she first hired a sun bed to have at home.
And she knows only too well her addiction has come at a price, having been diagnosed with skin cancer in October 2016
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, Sarah, who lives in north London, admits, “I love having a tan, I don’t feel right without one and fake tan isn’t the same.
“I go on up to six holidays a year, all to hot places so I can return bronzed.
“I’ve just come back from Morocco and I plan to travel more than ever in the future.
“Of course, I do worry about my ageing skin and cancer.
“When I was diagnosed with skin cancer it was a huge shock – I’d gone to my GP about something completely unrelated and he noticed it and told me he thought it was cancer, and a biopsy confirmed it.”
HIGH RISK HOLIDAY
Sarah’s first operation didn’t completely remove the cancer so her surgeons booked her in for a second one, astonishingly she delayed it to go on holiday to Ibiza and came back with a tan.
She confesses, “I lied to my doctor and said it was fake tan, but I doubt he was fooled for a moment.
“They warned me that I have a propensity to skin cancer, but it doesn’t stop me from sun bathing.
“That’s how bad my tanning addiction is. Although I do now put a complete sun block on my scar where they removed the cancer.”
Cases of melanoma are projected to reach a record high of 20,800 in Britain this year.
Analysis by Cancer Research UK shows rates of melanoma surged from 21 to 28 per 100,000 people between 2007-09 and 2017-19.
The biggest spike has been in the over-80s, with diagnoses soaring by 57 per cent since 2014.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive at Cancer Research UK, said: “Survival from cancers including melanoma continues to improve, demonstrating the substantial progress made possible by research.
“But it’s vital that people try to reduce their risk of getting the disease in the first place.
“Make sure to take care in the sun and contact your GP if you notice unusual changes to your skin – whether a new or changing mole, a sore that doesn’t heal, or an area of your skin that looks out of the ordinary.
“Spotting cancer early can make all the difference.”
Though Sarah does have niggling worries about the cancer returning, she’s more focussed on her concerns that her addiction has left her looking old.
LASTING DAMAGE
She says, “It crept up on me and it wasn’t until about 10 years ago I realised that I looked far older than my friends who’d been careful to keep their face out of the sun.
“I look in the mirror now and just think I look like an old hag.
“I’ve got so many wrinkles and I feel that my face sags too. I’d love to have a facelift if I could afford it.
“My neck is even worse, I can’t even put makeup on that to make it look better, and my chest crepes.
“I never worried about the effects of tanning when I was younger. I grew up in an age where people didn’t worry about skin damage from the sun bathing.
“I have no recollection of my parents ever putting cream on me and I’d regularly get burnt on summer holidays.
“From the age of 17 I’d hire sunbeds to use at home and I’d lie under them for hours. I even used to sun bathe with olive oil to get a deeper tan.”
Sarah, who’s currently single, is mum to Amy, now 35, and Jack, who tragically died in a car accident 11 years ago aged 17.
SARAH’S WARNING
She regularly warns Amy and other young people to use high factor sun cream, despite not using it herself apart from on her neck.
She says, “I warn them about both cancer and premature ageing.
The importance of sun cream in your skincare routine
Dermatologist and skincare enthusiast Andrea Suarez - known as Dr Dray - revealed why you should wear suncream.
The one thing you can do that will make the biggest difference – and this matters for all ages – is protecting your skin from the sun, Andrea stressed.
“The vast majority of external aging is due to exposure to ultraviolet radiation,” she continued, not because you’re “not using some jazzy serum or layering 90 different things on your face everyday”.
“If you’re not doing in your 20s, get on that now.”
But she said the use of sun cream alone doesn’t go far enough. Andrea urged that you also wear sun-protective clothing like broad-brimmed hats and long sleeves, on top of not staying out too long in the sun.
Doing this over your lifetime – and all year, not just during the summer or on sunny days – “will reduce the visible signs of photoageing”, Andrea said.
Those are wrinkles, muddled pigmentation and sagging skin.
“If I could turn back the clock I’d have been more careful, but it feels too late for me now, so I might as well enjoy the sunshine!”
Instead Sarah regularly has botox to try to slow down the ageing process.
She says, “I have it every few months, spending £250 a time and I think it helps.
“And I’m planning on trying micro dermal needling next which is supposed to stimulate collagen production and plump up your face.
“I’ve also spent a fortune on face creams trying everything from Clarins to Elemis.
“But recently I started using old fashioned Nivea cream, slathering it on at night, and I think it’s helping more than any of the others.
“But what I hate is my neck – makeup and Botox help with my face, but there’s nothing I can do about my wrinkly turkey neck.
“I’ve taken to wearing scarves to try to cover it up, but it gets very hot doing that when you’re away!”