A woman who used sunbeds for “less than an hour in total” has called for the UK government to ban them after her brief attempt at getting a pre-holiday “base tan” led to stage four cancer.

Lily Murphy, 30, from Watford, was diagnosed with melanoma at 23 years old, after briefly using sunbeds to “start” her tan ahead of a trip to South East Asia.

Lily was given the all-clear following her first diagnosis, but in 2023 began experiencing pain in her back and chest and is now living with stage four melanoma and is due to undergo lifelong treatment after the disease spread to her neck and lungs.

Working as an NHS administrative clerk in Watford General Hospital’s dermatology department, Lily also sees for herself a rising number of young people referred for cancer biopsies, most of whom have a history of sunbed use.

In light of this, Lily is petitioning the government to ban sunbeds in the UK, just like they’ve done over in Brazil and (most parts of) Australia. Why the hell would you need a sunbed in those countries anyway?

Lily told PA Real Life:

“I’ve probably used sunbeds for less than an hour in total.

“Just going on a sunbed for six minutes can change your whole life. Plus it costs the NHS: immunotherapy can cost £15,000 per round.”

Indeed, UV from sunbeds can be 15x stronger than sunlight. 15x stronger than sunlight! That’s a lot of UV and a lot of damage to your skin. Not really worth the risk just so you can build a “base tan” before your holiday, is it?

In Lily’s experience, she noticed a mole in 2018 that had darkened and started to bleed, but was told by doctors that it wasn’t anything to worry about. Reassured, she went travelling to Vietnam and Bali, but when she got back to the UK, she went for a second opinion and sure enough, the mole was removed and turned out to be a stage 1B melanoma.

Stage 1B melanoma is one of the earliest stages of skin cancer, meaning that it has not yet spread to nearby lymph nodes or other parts of the body – and it is generally highly curable.

Fast forward to 2023 and Lily began to feel unwell, had some tests and scans, and received a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis. It’s possible the melanoma she had years earlier spread via her blood and did not show up in scans she had done during her first cancer experience.

And so, Lily is now campaigning to have sunbeds banned and has a petition going here. Obviously getting a melanoma after spending less than an hour in total using sunbeds is very unlucky and she was probably highly genetically predisposed to melanoma anyway, but her brief sunbed use almost certainly sped up the process.

Of course, almost nobody knows their level of genetic predisposition, so your best bet is to just avoid sunbeds altogether. Could we eventually see them banned completely, though? I suppose they’re like cigarettes in that everyone knows the risks and it should be up to the individual to decide if they want to wreck their body or not.

Also a timely reminder to always wear sun block. Never forget:

For the tanning shop owner who found a CORPSE on the sunbed after a woman had a 2-hour session, click HERE.