Excessive Tanning Leaves Woman With Hole In Face After Skin Cancer Diagnosis

A Chicago woman shared a picture Thursday of a giant hole on her face due to intense tanning processes she underwent.

Carrie Doles, 34, was diagnosed with skin cancer from excessive tanning. She said she first started using tanning beds at 18 and, while studying at a university, visited a salon every day for four years.

“Laying out in the sun, not wearing sunscreen and tanning beds were definitely a contributing factor to my skin cancer,” Doles said. “It scared me to have been diagnosed with a skin cancer at such a young age but I was always under the assumption that basal cell was the ‘good kind of cancer’ and it would be no big deal. But not so much.”

The stay-at-home mom said she even skipped out on using sunscreen while laying out in the sun, and would only occasionally replenish her skin with moisturizer afterward.

“I didn’t know what skin care was then, I was young and felt I didn’t need to take care of my skin at such a young age,” she told MDW Features. “My skin was lucky if I put SPF on it or any type of moisturizer.”

Doles said she first noticed a small pencil sized scab appearing on her left temple in 2010. It proceeded to fall off on its own, only to reappear again. This went on for six months until she visited a dermatologist two weeks before her wedding to her now-husband Chris. The dermatologist told Doles it was skin cancer.

She didn’t want to scar her skin for the big day and decided to postpone her biopsy for two weeks. A week after her wedding, it was confirmed she had basal cell skin cancer. She was 26 years old at the time.

Doles was not worried at first as she thought the non-melanoma skin cancer was the “good kind” but was shocked on the day of her surgery when she found out she was the youngest person in the waiting room.

“I sat in the office waiting area for about thirty minutes or so. I was the youngest one in that whole office. Most patients were over the age of seventy,” she said.

Since it wasn’t clear where the affected and healthy cells were, the doctors had to carry out the procedure to cut out the cancer a total of six times. This left her with a big hole on the side of her face which was stitched up by a plastic surgeon.

The cancer came back again in 2014 in the same place, and it was removed a second time by a head, neck and throat specialist at a cancer treatment center. The surgery left the left side of her face paralyzed, reports said.

“Surgery went great and I healed up nicely. He [the doctor] said the nerves will take some time to come back, but we would revisit it in about six months and go from there,” she said. “Fast forward to the six-month mark and still no nerve activity. I had left side facial paralysis of my left brow and upwards.”

“I still have slight paralysis on my left side. The scar area is super tender. I can’t have any pressure put on it or have anyone touch it. My eye still waters constantly. Every now and then I get bad headaches. It feels like I am being struck by lightning in that area. I still cannot raise my left eyebrow,” Doles said, adding she now goes into schools to tell her story and discourage other young people from excessive tanning. She shared a picture of the hole on her Instagram.

“Tanning whether outside or in a tanning bed is so bad for you and your skin. Not only will you get wrinkles but your risk of developing skin cancer is increased,” she said. “Stop tanning. Your skin will thank you when you are older.”