Tanning addict who used sunbeds every day for 15 years was 'days from death'

04 February 2024 , 18:01

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Fionnghuala Maguire, 35, said she visited tanning salons as often as seven days a week (Image: Kennedy News and Media)

A woman who used sunbeds daily for 15 years has told how she was just "days from death" after being diagnosed with cancer twice

Fionnghuala Maguire says she feels lucky to be alive after discovering two cancerous moles following decades of sunbed use. The 35-year-old admits to being addicted, and says she visited tanning salons as often as seven days a week to attain the ultimate glow.

The receptionist began lying on sunbeds from the age of 14 - but never applied SPF during her years of tanning, despite her mum's insistence she stop, after she herself was diagnosed with cancer. The mum-of-one's life turned upside down after a suspicious mole turned out to be cancerous in 2020 - leading to a skin cancer diagnosis and immunotherapy treatment.

Shocking photos show Fionnghuala's face covered in red blotches as a result of the laser therapy she undergoes every six to eight weeks to help heal broken capillaries on her skin - a side effect of immunotherapy. Broken capillaries are dilated or enlarged blood vessels just beneath the surface of the skin.

The mum says she always gets "severe swelling" after each round of laser therapy - but hopes the treatment will help heal her scarred skin, which was caused by the aggressive immunotherapy treatment used to help prevent her skin cancer from returning.

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But, despite her successful skin cancer treatment, Fionnghuala was back being treated for cancer in late 2021 and almost died a second time. Thankfully, she now has the all clear - but admits she lives in fear of another cancerous mole appearing and still worries that her tanning addiction will eventually kill her.

Shocking photos show Fionnghuala's face covered in red blotches as a result of the laser therapy she undergoes every six to eight weeks (Kennedy News and Media)

Fionnghuala Maguire says she feels lucky to be alive after discovering two cancerous moles following decades of sunbed use (Kennedy News and Media)

Now, she is urging other tan fans to swerve the sunbeds - as she says she nearly left her son without a mum due to her obsession. Fionnghuala, who is mum to ten-year-old Fionn, said: "I've been a sunbed user since about 14. Back then there wasn't so much of an age limit. I would go quite naturally dark and having a tan gave me a lot of confidence. If I was going out on Saturday night or going on holiday, I would use it everyday to get the best tan.

"During the winter months it was around two or three times a week then I would up it in summer. I've probably used a sunbed thousands of times in my life. It was an addiction, there's no doubt about that. My mum was diagnosed with skin cancer and had to have a couple of tumours removed and used to tell me to stop using the sunbeds but you don't listen, you think you're invincible."

Fionnghuala underwent immunotherapy to prevent her cancer from returning, but suffered an adverse reaction to her treatment when her adrenal glands stopped working and she developed Addison's disease. It led to an emergency hospital admission in December 2021 when the mum says she was 'a day or two from death'.

She said: "Christmas 2021 I felt like I was going to die. My sister took me to hospital and just had to drop me off because it was Covid. I didn't know if I was going to see her again. They checked my adrenal glands and they had stopped working. Straight away I was pumped with a hydrocortisone steroid and within that night I felt like a completely different person. I felt normal again. A doctor told me that if there'd been another day or two of my cortisone levels being that low, I would've gone into a coma and passed away."

Fionnghuala underwent two more immunotherapy sessions in May 2022 before developing capillary leak syndrome - a rare disorder that causes a dramatic drop in blood pressure. In the last two years, Fionnghuala has had five more suspicious moles removed from her breast, arm, leg and back and sees her dermatologist every three months for full-body checks. Looking back on her health battle, Fionnghuala said a "tan is not worth" what she's been through and she could "give herself a slap" for using sunbeds.

Joseph Gamp