Woman battling skin cancer warns of dangers of tanning

Posted on Oct 06 in Featured, Featured Article, Latest News, QV Body, QV Face, Skin Conditions, Skincareby QV SkincarePrint

Whilst this story is not new to any of us in Australia due to our harsh weather conditions and the intensity of the sun, it still disturbs us when someone as young as 19 is diagnosed with skin cancer – and a very advanced case of it. In Melbourne we have only just started to see the sun again, so we thought it would serve as a timely reminder to post this article and remind all you lovely people out there to ALWAYS follow the slip, slap, slop mantra.

MASON CITY — Tiffani Trappe of Mason City always tanned easily.

“I’d go out in the sun and I’d have this gorgeous tan,” the 20-year-old Simpson College student said. “I didn’t even know what sunscreen and sunblock was.”

It came as a shock, then, when Trappe was diagnosed in August 2009 with stage three metastatic malignant melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer.

She was only 19.

“There’s still days I just walk around in a daze, wondering what’s going on,” she said. “Nobody should have to deal with this, especially somebody as young as me.” Melanoma runs in families but no one in her family had been diagnosed with it before. Looking back, Trappe said she didn’t make a point of sunbathing, but like many girls her age she went to tanning booths to get tanned for special occasions such as homecoming and prom.

Her freshman year of college, she remembers walking with her best friend to a tanning salon every day for three weeks to get tanned for a formal dance.

“Every tanning place has to have a poster explaining the dangers, but you read it and think,  ‘Whatever. It’s not going to affect me,’ ” she said. In July 2009, Trappe’s gynecologist referred her to a dermatologist to check out a few moles.

The dermatologist removed a mole on her neck and one on her upper right arm to have them biopsied. Trappe was back at college when her mother, Tammie Anderson, called one evening and told Tiffani she needed to come home. She broke the news that her daughter had skin cancer.

“There’s no easy way to tell a person,” Anderson said. The cancerous mole was the one on her arm.

Trappe’s dermatologist wanted to take out more skin around the mole and go deeper to make sure he had removed all the cancer. He found the melanoma had spread. “So then I went in for another surgery and this time they had to put me under anesthetic,” Trappe said.

In September 2009 skin and muscle tissue around the mole were removed. Trappe’s lymph nodes were also biospied.

The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes but this time all the cancerous tissue had been removed. “As of right now that’s been it,” Trappe said. Her melanoma is monitored by ultrasound every three months. The most recent was on Aug. 19.

“The last three ultrasounds showed the lymph nodes are swollen but the cancer hasn’t spread,” she said.

Possibly due to stress, Trappe has lost 40 pounds. Her duodenum is dilated, preventing her from digesting food properly.

To help gain weight and bolster her immune system, a feeding tube was inserted on Aug. 20 — “this gorgeous thing,” Trappe jokes — through which she takes in extra protein.

Meanwhile, she is focusing on her college life. Trappe has a double major in criminal justice and Spanish, is taking 14 credit hours and is also active in her sorority. “For the rest of my life I have to go to the dermatologist,” she said.

Trappe just hopes others will think twice about suntanning. “Everybody is so caught up on their appearances,” she said. “I was, too. It’s cool to be tan. But you’re going to look just as great if you get a spray tan, and it’s so much healthier, too.”

Trappe won’t go outdoors without sunblock and often a hat and sunglasses. “It took me 20 years and a large slap in the face to learn that,” she said.

CLICK HERE to read the article

Image Ref: http://www.bltchemistry.com/better-tanning-through-chemistry/242/

3 Comments

• khan says:

  October 7, 2010 at 16:40

  The best product i have ever used. It is a miracle ……………….I have just used 2x on my heels and i have seen a big difference.

  thank you QV for making a wonderful cream for our heels …now we can wear nice high heels and show off

  Reply
• christine morris says:

  October 6, 2010 at 12:36

  This is a sad story, i have also seen the results of skin cancers my husband and his mother have had so may skin cancers burnt off i have lost count. My husband has had 9 operations and also his face is now disfigured because of the amount of surgeries he has endured in the past 3 years. the lymp nodes have also been removed. The surgeons have also scrapted the bone in his mouth and he is constantly getting infections which will not clear up. Iam contantly telling my sons to put on sunblock as they work out doors. There was not too much advertising of the dangers of skin cancers in my younger days, now i read it everwhere, thank goodness.

  Reply
  • QV Skincare says:

    October 6, 2010 at 15:50

    Thank you for sharing Christine, that is really sad the damage that has been done to your poor husband. We hope that the advertising of such stories help people see that it’s not just older people who are at risk but everyone.

    LoveQV

    Reply

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