A high-profile dead celebrity could do a lot for the cause of melanoma awareness and education. Preferably one with a history of tanning bed use who lives long enough after her diagnosis to launch a large-scale campaign of public service announcements about the risks of tanning, before dying young and being buried, with live coverage on CNN, in a coffin that closely resembles a tanning bed. I could mention a few nominees, but I won’t go there.
But we can’t count on such a celebrity ‘windfall’, so meanwhile it’s up to all of us to wage a grassroots campaign. Like that of a gutsy facebook friend who today posted photos of her melanoma surgery scar, in an effort to convince teenagers not to use tanning beds. It’s a slow, tedious, frustrating effort to try to get the attention of a public that is still quite ignorant and indifferent about this deadly “skin cancer”, but it’s one that I truly believe will bear fruit if we keep after it. After all, I’m old enough to remember a time when nobody, I mean NOBODY, spoke publicly about breast cancer.
For all who’ve given up their privacy to try to keep the guest list of this Hotel from growing, here’s my take on The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction”…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7cHPy04s8
I can't get no cancer action,
I can't get no Black C traction.
'Cause I try and I try and they fry and they fry.
I can't get no, I can't get no.
When she’s postin’ pix of scars
And a friend comes on the facebook show
He's tellin' me more and more
Sharin’ some useless information
Supposed to fire my new admiration.
I can't get no, oh no no no.
Hey hey hey, that's what I say.
I can't get no cancer action,
I can't get no Black C traction.
'Cause I try and I try and they fry and they fry.
I can't get no, I can't get no.
When I'm watchin' my TV
And a quack comes on to tell me
How tan beds give me D.
Well he can't be a doc 'cause he doesn't know
The same cancer stats as me.
I can't get no, oh no no no.
Hey hey hey, that's what I say.
I can't get no cancer action,
I can't get no Black C traction.
'Cause I try and I try and they fry and they fry.
I can't get no, I can't get no.
When I’m hikin' for the cure
And I'm postin' this and I'm bloggin’ that
And I'm tryin' to save some girl
Who tells me Black C never attack, tannin’s a treat
'cause you see I'm on an addict streak.
I can't get no, oh no no no.
Hey hey hey, that's what I say.
I can't get no, I can't get no,
We can't get no Black C traction,
No cancer action, no Black C traction, no cancer action.
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I have learned people think it will not ever happen to them. Honestly, I never thought about it. I was the generation who used baby oil & iodine. I remember the first tanning beds as being promoted safer than the sun. I believed it. I was a farm girl then a bodybuilder who used tanning beds for competitions. So when I got the news I had malignant melanoma, it was devastating! But because of early detection and proper medical treatment I am still here. Ironically I used to worry about tan lines... not thinking the tan lines I'd have to worry about were results from the surgeon's scapel But, again, I am lucky. I work at a cancer center. I see first hand the devastation this black disease causes. I have tried in vain with every measure to convince others the dangers of tanning either from the sun or tanning beds with the worst being the tanning beds. I present the facts! Still it falls on deaf ears... it's NOT going to happen to me they think. That's what Denita, a young 24 year old mother of two thought. She was one of our patients at the Cancer Center I work at. She was a cheerleader, red headed and used to tan to look better. When she was diagnosed she thought, skin cancer, all they will do is cut it out and she could go on with life. She sat down with me and allowed me to video-tape our conversation. She was diagnosed in Sept. I did the interview Nov. 3rd and she passed away Nov. 30th. She never saw herself dying from this. PLEASE do not think it cannot happen to you! Protect the skin you are in!!!
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