Woman who used sunbeds since being a teenager dies of skin cancer aged 30
A woman who opened up about her regular use of tanning beds since she was 15 has tragically died of skin cancer aged just 30.
Chelsea Tantum was 28 years old when she was diagnosed with an advanced melanoma, having spent years using the tanning beds.
Following her diagnosis Chelsea worked to warn others of the dangers of tanning beds and urged people to always get checked.
"If sharing my story helps even one person get a mole checked earlier, recognise warning signs, stop using sunbeds or understand how serious melanoma truly is, then speaking up is worth it," she wrote in a public appeal on Just Giving.
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"If you’re able to donate — no matter how small — you’ll be helping to raise awareness, fund research, and support others walking this same path."
Chelsea had previously told of how she was just 15 years old when she started to use tanning beds alongside her friends, and that they would compete to see who could be the darkest, despite not being old enough.
She would continue using tanning beds into her 20s, before being diagnosed with cancer when she was 28. At first she was diagnosed with melanoma which was stage 3C.
When the cancer was diagnosed it had spread to her breast, ribs, femurs, lungs, liver, pelvis, and spine, and when she turned 30, Chelsea revealed that it had spread to her brain, reaching 'stage 4D'.
"As I approached my 30th birthday, I truly believed I was about to hear the words I had been waiting so long for: 'no evidence of disease'," she wrote on the funding page.
"Instead, I received devastating news. The melanoma had metastasised to my brain. I am now stage 4D. While there is currently no evidence of disease elsewhere in my body, melanoma has once again found a new place to appear."
"This is why awareness matters so deeply to me. Melanoma is not just skin cancer. It spreads fast. It spreads aggressively. And it can change — or end — lives far quicker than people realise."
Chelsea died on 30 September, and her funeral is now scheduled for 23 October.
Tributes were also paid to her following her death on social media, as one person penned on 30 September: "We won’t ever understand why this has happened to the most beautiful person in the world.
"You have fought so hard and you didn’t ever give up hope. Your grit and determination with your utter dedication to beat this disease is something I’ll never forget."
Chelsea used her illness to call for tighter controls on tanning bed use, including mandatory ID checks, and to support charities that research the disease.
This included raising £4,210 at the time of writing on a Just Giving page, which is to support the charity Melanoma Focus that supports people who have the condition, as well as helping to make people aware of the dangers associated with tanning bed use.
Back in May the UK government has announced plans to introduce the very policy that Chelsea had been fighting for, saying that it wants to introduce essential ID checks for customers at tanning salons.
While there is a ban on people under 18 using tanning beds, there were concerns that under-18s are still able to access them, something which Chelsea's case very clearly indicated.
UV-emitting tanning devices are also classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer.
A consultation on the policy closed back in August 2026, and the new rules could come into effect in 2027.
Kit Roberts