Cancer survivors warn teens of dangers of tanning, sun exposure
When prom season and graduation hover closer, many high school students urge one another to sign pledges to stay sober and act responsibly.
But some are making a different sort of promise — to steer clear of tanning salons — after hearing stories from young women dealing with devastating skin cancer.
“My life is forever changed,” said Meghan Forrest, a 25-year-old Melrose native who told North Quincy High School students during a recent visit that in addition to having her body disfigured by surgery in 2011 to remove a cancerous mole on her left calf, the removal of six lymph nodes in her groin led to her contracting lymphedema, which causes swelling when fluids build up in soft tissues.
Forrest, a registered nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital who now lives in Cambridge, told rotating groups of students who gathered in the high school’s Black Box Theatre that she wears a pneumatic compression boot on her right leg for one hour every day to help with circulation, and the pain from frequent swelling is intense.
“It’s not a fun way to live your life in your 20s,” said Forrest, who started using tanning beds weekly when she was 16 and admits to never having worn sunblock.
Forrest and four other cancer survivors visited the Quincy school as part of the Melanoma Foundation of New England’s seventh annual “Tanning Is Out, Your Skin Is In” pledge drive. The campaign runs through the end of April at schools in all six New England states.
