Tanorexic cancer warning

Welcome to Closer! Sign In or Sign Up

Home|

Showbiz|

Real Life|

Diets & Health|

Money Savvy|

Bingo|

Closer Diets|

Magazine|

Email Address
Password
Forgot Password?
Remember Me?

Need To Register? Click Here

New Bigger Prizes.

Join today and we will double your first deposit as well!

What's in your stars?

With Closer's astrologer Yasmin Boland

Back | Email to a Friend | Print | Send in Your Comment

Zara Hovelsas is a self-confessed tanorexic

'Sunbeds gave me cancer- but I still use them'

Monday 11 January 2010

Tanorexic Zara Hovelsas has been told her addiction to sunbeds is killing her – but she still refuses to quit

After carefully checking her skin for suspicious moles, Zara Hovelsas steps into a high- powered tanning booth and
smiles as the heat hits her skin.

Shockingly, the 27 year old is so hooked on having a year-round suntan, she won’t quit her dangerous addiction – despite having been diagnosed with skin cancer.

In January this year, Zara had a cancerous mole removed and two other pre-cancerous moles cut out – and doctors told her they’d been caused by sunbeds. Zara’s mum also fought skin cancer two years ago, while her granddad died from it.

After initially vowing to stop tanning, Zara confesses she’s now using sunbeds again – but thinks she’ll stay safe by only using them once a week and routinely checking her moles.

“I hate my pale skin colour,” says Zara, a gemmologist. “People will probably think I’m silly to risk my life for a tan, but I can’t help myself. I’m frightened the cancer will return, but I tell myself I’ll be OK if I just tan every once in a while and keep checking out my moles,” she adds naïvely.

“That way, if it comes back, I can catch it in time. Fingers crossed, anyway.”

Zara fell in love with sunbeds when she was just 15. “They were really fashionable at the time,” she says. “I visited a tanning salon with a friend – we were never asked our age – and after a few sessions, my skin turned a fantastic shade of brown. My friends were really jealous.”

Zara, from Kilburn, north London, visited the salon five times a week, spending her £10-a-week pocket money on tanning.

“I became addicted,” she says. “I never thought about the consequences. Even though I had heard about the dangers, I didn’t take them seriously.”

Amazingly, Zara’s mum, June, 49, a retired nurse, knew about her daughter’s tanning salon visits but never stopped her.

Zara says: “She did try to scare me by saying I’d get wrinkles and would end up looking old. She was more careful than me in the sun because she burned easily. She never used sunbeds.”

But, incredibly, June bought Zara her own sunbed when she was 18. “I’m an only child and my parents split up when I was two, so Mum liked to give me anything I asked for,” says Zara.

Though June warned Zara she could only use it twice a week, Zara would often have two sessions a day when her mum was out.

Despite her deeply bronzed skin, Zara still always felt she was too white. She says: “My friends would put their arm next to mine and say: ‘Wow, you’re brown.’ But I still wanted to be browner.”

In 2005, Zara’s mum had two cancerous moles removed from her leg and back. “I was devastated when Mum developed cancer,” says Zara. “But it didn’t stop me from tanning. I presumed it was because she has fair skin, and thought I’d be fine because my skin is naturally darker.

“Mum begged me to stop using sunbeds and I agreed – but I knew I’d never be able to keep my word.”
Thankfully, June was given the all-clear, but she began looking into her family history – she was adopted and hadn’t known much about her real family – and discovered her natural father had died of skin cancer.

But not even that was enough to convince Zara to stop. “It sounds terrible, but I just told myself it wasn’t going to happen to me,” she says.

Then, in November 2007, Zara noticed a dark mole on her left thigh. She says: “I was worried and I thought about getting it checked out – but I never got round to it. I also carried on using sunbeds.”

But one night in January, Zara dreamt her leg was riddled with cancer. “I woke up in a cold sweat,” she says. “I decided to get it seen to immediately.”

Zara made an appointment the next day at The Mole Clinic in London, where a nurse suspected it was cancerous.
“I was so scared, I couldn’t stop crying,” says Zara. “I phoned Mum and she burst into tears. I was cursing myself and just thought: ‘You stupid girl, you only have yourself to blame.’ I was convinced I was going to die.”

Zara had the mole on her thigh removed three days later, and two moles on her back were also sent off to be analysed. She says: “I was told the one on my leg was malignant – if I’d left it, the cancer would have spread and killed me. The moles on my back would have also turned malignant.

“Luckily, it was caught in time, so I didn’t need chemotherapy. The doctor confirmed the cancer was aggravated by sunbathing and using sunbeds – and added there was a strong chance the cancer could return. I swore I’d never go on a sunbed again.”

For the next few months, Zara swapped sunbeds for fake tans. But she says: “The colour wasn’t as good – people were always telling me I wasn’t as brown as usual.”

So, shockingly, Zara began using sunbeds again three months ago, after getting a tan on holiday in France with friends. She says: “It felt weird sitting in the shade, so I sunbathed using an SPF8 – the first time I’d ever used sunscreen.

“It felt so amazing to be brown again. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing my colour, so I booked myself a sunbed session. I felt really guilty.”

But Zara, who’s been dating footballer Mikel, 23, for 18 months, confesses she’s been using sunbeds once a week ever since.

“I haven’t told my mum – she’d be furious if she knew,” she reveals. “I know it might kill me in the end, but I just can’t stop.”

By Natasha Mann

For more information about the risk of using sunbeds click here