Wednesday, May 25, 2005

"I'm paying the price now."

From "Despite risks of melanoma, many still tan unprotected skin" in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Excerpts:

People take risks with their health every day. They go jogging without reflective gear. They eat fast food more than they should. They don't floss. And they love to lie out in the sun.

Even when she was very young, Marjorie Gross, who is now in her 60s, knew that there was a high chance that she would get skin cancer. Her father was a doctor, and he pleaded with his fair-skinned, blue-eyed daughter to cover up.

"But I didn't," she said from the office of her skin cancer doctor. "I was concerned about getting a tan. I was a sun-worshipper."

She first got basal cell cancer 20 years ago, and has had surgeries about a dozen times since then to remove cancerous cells. She's also a breast cancer survivor, and takes medication that weakens her immune system, further making her susceptible to cancer.

"I'm paying the price now," she said. "It was a shock since you always think that it's not going to happen to you."

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