Man was facing year to live at 21 after using sunbeds five times a week
Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing.
A man was told he risked having a 'year to live' after he was using sun beds up to five times a week and developed skin cancer.
Jak Howell was 21 when he learned he had stage three advanced melanoma, being diagnosed with it back in June 2021, after it had spread from a patch on his back to other parts of his body like his chest and groin within a couple of months.
When he'd been diagnosed with cancer, he'd been using sun beds regularly since he was 16 and he had to go in for two surgeries on his leg and lower back to remove the tumours, but they were not successful.
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Fortunately, he was given the all clear in December 2022 after he underwent a year of immunotherapy treatment and Jak said he'd been told he'd 'have a year to live' if it hadn't worked.
He'd first discovered a mark back in April 2021 when he found a 'really itchy' patch of skin which was bleeding, he emailed his GP to ask about it but since covid lockdown measures were in place they couldn't have a face-to-face appointment.
His GP replied 'I don't want to see you, go straight to the hospital', which the man said set off 'immediate alarm bells' that whatever he had was serious.
He ended up being admitted to Singleton Hospital, Swansea, where he got a biopsy and was later informed that the results had come back with cancer.
"At first, I didn't expect it to be anything, [I've] seen people with melanoma have it cut off and move on. It snowballed from there and got bigger and bigger," Jak said.
He explained that the doctors couldn't understand how he had such severe melanoma, with them asking him 'did you use sun beds' and him admitting that he did 'quite a lot'.
Jak said that the doctors told him they 'can't physically put it down to that' but gave him a '99.999 percent chance that is the reason it's so severe'.
Since getting his all clear, Jak has been speaking about the mental health effects having cancer can have on someone, with him saying that afterwards he told his friends 'it almost feels like it didn't happen'.
He's trying to warn people away from using sun beds and teach them about the devastating impact being diagnosed with cancer can have on the mind, as he said that when he got his diagnosis 'you could have heard a pin drop'.
"I think you build yourself up to not make it that far," Jak said.
"I think for me it was the most difficult part because my life was lived in hospitals and I knew I was always safe in a hospital, in a sense. Now that I had to just go home, I was on my own again.
"It was the most severe shock to the system I had ever experienced."
He encouraged people going through something similar to share their problems and talk to someone about it as 'the biggest problem is you take it on yourself'.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.
Topics: Cancer, Health, Mental Health, UK News
Joe Harker