When a busy air hostess was struck down with extreme fatigue and tiredness she assumed it was caused by her busy hours at work and good old fashioned jet lag but it turned out to be something far worse
An air hostess convinced her extreme fatigue was caused by jet lag and a shock break-up was stunned when it turned out to be cancer – after years of sunbed abuse.
Chloe Broad presumed her busy cabin crew schedule had left her feeling more exhausted than usual last year, so booked in a three-week holiday to recover.
The 24-year-old was also dealing with the aftermath of her relationship ending, so brushed off her tiredness as heartbreak.
But when Chloe spotted a suspicious-looking mole on her right arm, she visited her GP who discovered her symptoms may have a more sinister cause.
Chloe admits she ‘abused’ sunbeds, forking out hundreds of pounds a month for a year-round glow.
The then self-professed ‘sunbed addict’ admits she 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 cancer that develops from malignant cells in the skin.
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 – and now she’s warning other people that it’s ‘not worth the risk’.
Chloe, from Exmouth, Devon, 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 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 be having an impact on my energy levels, I was just moping around.”
After going on her first sunbed at the age of 18, Chloe eventually found herself using them more and more until she was on them daily.
Chloe said: “I’ve always loved being super tanned. I always tanned really well. As soon as I was 18 I started using the 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, 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 spending easily hundreds of pounds a month on getting a tan. I was a sunbed addict.”
In September, Chloe then noticed a mole in her right arm had changed colour and felt particularly dry and itchy.
Chloe, who hadn’t used a sunbed for around six months, visited her GP who referred her for further testing where a biopsy confirmed two moles on her right arm and left shoulder were cancerous.
Chloe said: “Even just by looking at it, they were pretty certain it was skin cancer.
“I had abused sunbeds. 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.
“They managed to remove it all during the biopsy.
“I’d spent all this money to be tanned and look better and now I have this big scar on my arm.”
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 made Chloe ditch sunbeds for good – opting instead to safely achieve a bronzed look from out of the 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 at almost all times.
“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.
“I just wanted to stay in bed thinking I was jet lagged or heartbroken was actually because I didn’t have that energy as my body was fighting off this cancer I wasn’t aware of.
“Now I just use spray tans. I still love a tan, it’s just not worth risking your health.
“It’s so much quicker, easier, cheaper and safer to do spray tans. I regret ever going on the beds.
“I would much rather not have the scars it’s left and have saved the money.”
