This is one of the most horrific things we’ve ever seen…
Anthea Smith, a 44-year-old mother living in the United Kingdom, is a cancer survivor living now with just one ear after the other was amputated several years ago to stop the spread of melanoma. Her story is a scary one but hopefully a helpful cautionary tale, too — for those who regularly use tanning beds that is.
Related: Marc Anthony’s Ex-Wife Reveals Scary Skin Cancer Diagnosis
As a younger woman, Smith says she frequented tanning beds to bronze her skin. She recalled in a new interview on the BBC how tanning became a compulsion for her, having her skin darker and more bronzed than what was otherwise typical for the season:
“I was addicted to having a tan, to being tanned. Predominantly it was sun beds because it was quicker, and the results were faster.”
Fast forward a few years, though, and all that direct tanning light appears to have caught up with her.
Smith is now speaking out about her unusual story, and recounted in the sit-down chat how an aggressive form of skin cancer led to the amputation of her ear, as well as other major surgeries, just to stave off the cancer’s spread.
The mom-of-two first noticed a flesh-colored growth in her ear. Doctors thought it was just a wart, but for months it kept growing, eventually developing into a black and brown mass that began spreading and bleeding across the rest of her ear. Sure enough, she was quickly diagnosed with stage three melanoma, which is a particularly aggressive form of the disease. She was forced to undergo two operations to stop its further spread.
The mother recalled (below):
“I lost my left ear to my tanning addiction. [My] whole left ear has been amputated, and then [in a] second operation I had my whole inner ear, middle ear, all my salivary glands on my left side, all my lymph nodes. Full temple bone taken from my skull.”
Wow…
Related: Shannen Doherty Reveals Her Cancer Is Back — And It’s Stage Four
Not surprisingly, the cancer survivor felt guilty about her tanning bed habit, as the connection there for her can’t be ignored:
“The guilt that I feel to my husband and children, really, that this is all, this was self-inflicted. But it was self-inflicted with no level of knowledge of the dangers.”
Now, with skin cancer being “the most common of all cancers,” according to the American Cancer Society, perhaps Smith’s story may catch others before they make similar mistakes. And if you weren’t moved yet by her testimony about the disease, perhaps the horrifying images of the cancer spreading on her ear may inspire you to be careful in sunlight; the brave among you may view those pictures in the full interview video (below).
Thankfully, it appears Smith has come out of that period of her life fairly well — aside from losing her ear, salivary glands, and lymph nodes — and has a relatively clean bill of health moving forward. We’re glad things didn’t turn out worse, and we sincerely hope some of you may learn something from her mistakes. We know we sure have!
Stay safe out there, everyone!
[Image via BBC.]
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