Solarium Skin Cancer Victim Dies

writerterri said:

Lets face it, we're all going to die of something one day. Someone who has never smoked just died of lung cancer. A healthy jogger just died if a heart attack. A chronic sun bather just got hit by a car at the age of 75. A cholesterol queen since age 13 dies peacefully at the age of 86 in her sleep...

Can you really change your fate?


6 million ways to die, only one way to live.

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*sigh* All you ever think about is sex.

I think it's a shame when anyone, especially someone so young, dies of something unexpected, even more especially if it seems like it could be prevented.

What I'm about to say, like what Neuro said, in no way endorses tanning, but:

An estimated 58,300 new cases of skin cancer, such as skin melanoma (excluding basal & squamous), with an estimated 9,600 deaths

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can be interpreted as "to a high degree of probability, this won't happen to me" (note that it is slightly but distinctly different from "it won't happen to me"). If these statistics are for the US, the probability of getting skin cancer is 0.02% (or 1 person in 5,000), and of dying from it is 0.003% (or 1 person in 33,000), per year. BUT, if it's possible to increase the chances that you are one of the 32,999 who don't get it, and one of the 4,999 who don't die of it, it would be prudent to do it.

Sure we're all going to die of something. But that doesn't mean I'm going to play in traffic. I will, however, have a glass of wine.

writerterri said:

Lets face it, we're all going to die of something one day. Someone who has never smoked just died of lung cancer. A healthy jogger just died if a heart attack. A chronic sun bather just got hit by a car at the age of 75. A cholesterol queen since age 13 dies peacefully at the age of 86 in her sleep...

Can you really change your fate?

6 million ways to die, only one way to live.

Click to expand...

I'd rather not take any chances, Dork.

Seriously, though. Yes, a million things might happen to us tomorrow. Why would you want to increase the Reaper's chances of getting you?

Joe270 said:

So I'm not so concerned with this drivel. I'm more likely to be killed by a drive-by than skin cancer, and I had to work in it for decades.

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My dad thought the exact same thing. Skin cancer finally caught up with him when he was 73 years old. I imagine he thought he was long past worrying about anything as silly as skin cancer since he no longer spent long days in the sun.

Daddy didn't die, but he came pretty darn close. And he's changed now, too. The whole family notices it. He went from a strong, healthy, active 73 year old man to simply an old man in the span of about 6 months, and that happened 4 years ago. Sure, he IS old, but he was always stronger than men many years younger. Not now.

Radiation, chemo, nausea, vomiting, change of taste in food, loss of hair, loss of balance, loss of appetite, loss of the ability to care for himself, loss of muscle, loss of mental capacity. All those things happened to my dad and more. Why in the WORLD would anyone want to chance it?

I'm white as a frog-belly and proud of it. That's the skin color I was born with, so I imagine that's the skin color I was intended to have.

My mom has dealt with two separate instances of skin cancer. None (thank God) required chemo or anything more serious than the removal of the infected skin tissue.

But this is what the doctor told her: it wasn't necessarily a recent burn that 'did' it. When she was little, she had several bad burns because there just wasn't the thing about sunblock that there is now. BUT she has been told that any burn now, slight or severe, can become skin cancer for her. She has to carry sunblock with her everywhere, during any season.

scarletpeaches said:

I'd rather not take any chances, Dork.

Seriously, though. Yes, a million things might happen to us tomorrow. Why would you want to increase the Reaper's chances of getting you?

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Everything in moderation and hope to live a long life.

I've seen more people who live by the sword, die by the sword and yet some are so undeserving of their fate. One never knows, you just live day to day and take of yourself the best you know how.

My mom partied hearty most of my life and when she died she had all normal, healthy organs. I've brobably drank the equielancy of a case of beer in my life and my liver is diseased.

Go figure.

I don't believe in eat, drink and be merry, just the merry part.

Serenity said:

But this is what the doctor told her: it wasn't necessarily a recent burn that 'did' it. When she was little, she had several bad burns because there just wasn't the thing about sunblock that there is now.

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Exactly the case with me. I had so many bad cases of sunburn as a child. When I was 18 I decided to stop baking myself, but by then the damage had been done. Like myscribe says, skin cancer is not an immediate disease.

I had a couple serious burns as a teenager, but since my 20's I've avoided sunning. It helps that my favorite sport is played indoors.

Growing up in southeast GA, we spent most of our time outside playing with lots of sunshine. I thought I wanted to tan, but now and then, I'd just get burned. I'm naturally quite porcelain-toned and a few years ago, these red spots started showing up on my arms even though I stopped trying to tan years and years ago and faithfully wore SPF 50+ when I did go out. The first biopsy indicated actenic keratosis and I was prescribed several courses of a 5FU cream (a chemotherapy agent, often given IV). Didn't help. Now I've had 2 biopsies in 2 weeks and they still aren't sure what I've got. But my arms have these red splotches all over them that get worse when it's hot or when I'm stressed. They get bright red then, which contrasts quite nicely with my naturally whiter shade of pale skin.

Daddy, Granny, and several other relatives all wound up with skin cancers, most due to sun exposure.

Yes, we're all going to die from something, but doing something purposely that's daring a painful and often disfiguring death is just plain ridiculous.

jodiodi said:

Yes, we're all going to die from something, but doing something purposely that's daring a painful and often disfiguring death is just plain ridiculous.

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Exactly! Great point!

I apologize for my tone. I do understand the need to get out this information.

I understand there are loads of skin cancer deaths, and I wasn't trying to minimize any of that. Many people work in the sun all day every day. Their living winds up killing them.

But the choice of going to a tanning salon to get zapped is a different animal. How many cancer deaths are related to these tanning beds, though?

A few points borrowed from The Skin Cancer Foundation (skincancer.org)

The majority of people diagnosed with melanoma are white men over age 50. (5)

Men over age 40 spend the most time outdoors and have the highest annual exposure to ultraviolet radiation. (9)

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a proven human carcinogen, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (13)

Exposure to tanning beds before age 35 increases melanoma risk by 75 percent. (16)

Occasional use of tanning beds almost triples the chances of developing melanoma. (12)

New high-pressure sunlamps emit doses of UVR that can be as much as 15 times that of the sun.(13)


Something else I read there is even scarier. The darker your skin, the MORE LIKELY you are to actually die from skin cancer. While darker skin does not make you more susceptible to skin cancer, it makes skin cancer much more difficult to notice in the first place, and harder to diagnose as well!!! By the time you know you have it, it could be so advanced that there is nothing to be done!

My younger son has a darker complexion than the rest of us, but I still slathered on the sunblock when he was little and I insist that he do it himself to this day.

Sorry for sounding preachy, but I am very passionate about this because I watched my dad suffer so much. Please...wear sunscreen. The sun feels just as warm and wonderful on your skin when you are wearing sunblock as it does when you are frying in it.

Oh, that is just terrifying! My husband is Filipino and his kids also have dark skin tones--beautiful tones, but I can easily see where melanomas could be overlooked on them. And they're so cavalier about it. I try to make them all wear sunscreen, but can't catch them all the time. They say they never burn. But, sure enough, my stepson got a very painful burn at the beach. My husband is always saying he doesn't need to wear a cap or sunscreen because he has dark skin. I'm going to show him these stats.

writerterri said:

Lets face it, we're all going to die of something one day. Someone who has never smoked just died of lung cancer. A healthy jogger just died if a heart attack. A chronic sun bather just got hit by a car at the age of 75. A cholesterol queen since age 13 dies peacefully at the age of 86 in her sleep...

Can you really change your fate?

6 million ways to die, only one way to live.

Click to expand...

Those are exceptions and not the rule. I've held the hands of children who are dying of cancer. There is nothing that they did to cause it. It just happens - but does that mean I shouldn't try to live the best way possible?

You absolutely can reduce your risk of certain types of cancer. Many non-smokers get lung cancer from exposure to second-hand smoke (either at work or living with parents who smoked, etc.). Not all lung cancers are a result of smoking, but a large portion are. Skin cancer is the number one form of cancer and the most preventable.

There is nothing more devastating than seeing someone find out the cancer is a result of something preventable. My father was one of them. He died of lung cancer when I was nine. The lung cancer was a direct result of smoking (smoked cigarettes and then a pipe).

Obviously, I have strong inclinations about the subject both personally and professionally. I'm a cancer educator for goodness sakes! Whatever you want to know about cancer (or don't for that matter), I'll tell you.