A young woman from the UK is spreading awareness about skin cancer after being diagnosed with stage four of the disease at just 23 years old.
The Skin Cancer Foundation highlights that one in five Americans will face skin cancer by the age of 70, with 9,500 individuals diagnosed daily in the US.
Lily Murphy, a 30-year-old from Watford, UK, revealed that she had used sunbeds fewer than ten times before her diagnosis. She began using them to “start” her tan before traveling to Vietnam and Bali.
After returning from her trip, she noticed something was amiss. In 2018, she observed a mole darkening and bleeding, which doctors initially dismissed as non-threatening.
Prior to her Southeast Asia trip, Lily grew concerned and sought a second opinion from another healthcare professional.
“That’s when the doctor said, ‘This doesn’t look right, I’m going to refer you on the two-week cancer pathway,'” she explained.
As an NHS administrative clerk, Lily had the mole excised and was informed of her diagnosis two weeks later.
“There were two Macmillan Cancer nurses in there too… that’s when they said to me it’s come back as melanoma, stage 1B,” she recounted.
“I was shocked, I was devastated. But as there was a delay between the call and the appointment, by the time I saw the doctor, it had actually sunk in a bit.”
As per Macmillan, stage 1 melanoma is at an early stage, meaning it hasn’t spread elsewhere and is mostly treatable, which gave Lily hope.
Following two surgeries in 2019, Lily was declared clear by medical professionals. However, in 2023, she began feeling unwell again.
“I was just constantly tired, and I couldn’t understand why,” Lily said. “The following weekend I worked overtime and had back pain, so I thought I’d sat uncomfortably or something.”
“But then I woke up the next morning and had really bad chest pain and couldn’t breathe, and said to my mum it feels like something’s not right.”
Her symptoms were first attributed to anxiety, but subsequent scans and blood tests revealed she had stage 4 melanoma.
“They said we’ve found some masses in your lung and your neck,” Lily remembered.
Doctors informed her that, in rare cases, melanoma can spread through the blood and not appear on scans, which was her situation.
Due to advances in treatments, some individuals can live for extended periods with stage four melanoma, according to Cancer Research UK. Lily is now expected to undergo lifelong treatment as the cancer has metastasized to her lungs and neck.
Lily is advocating for the prohibition of sunbeds in the UK. Her petition, “Ban Sun Beds to Protect Against Skin Cancer in the UK,” has already attracted over 1,300 signatures.
“It was just a spur of the moment thing,” she stated. “Every day I’m getting biopsy requests where the patient has a history of using sunbeds. Sunbeds are a known cancer risk.”
“Banning them would save lives – and save the NHS money.”
Lily noted that she has “probably used sunbeds for less than an hour in total” and “just going on a sunbed for six minutes can change your whole life.”
“If I could stop just one person using sunbeds to save them going through what I’ve been through, it will be a miracle,” she expressed.