Content warning: This article contains an image of a wound following surgery which some may find distressing As a young, carefree soul, 25-year-old Hannah Bowen hadn't given much thought to sun safety messages. The golf professional says she regularly didn't wear sun cream to emulate the look of the bronzed beauties she saw on Instagram and TV shows like Love Island. But the 27-year-old realised the hard way the importance of protecting your skin, after discovering a mole on her stomach had become cancerous.
Hannah, from Swansea, hadn't even noticed her mole had changed and it was only spotted by her GP because she was wearing a crop top when she'd gone in over another matter. Hannah Bowen was just 25 when she was diagnosed with melanoma (Photo: Hannah Bowen) She was then diagnosed with melanoma, a type of skin cancer that can spread to other areas of the body. "If I didn't look tanned and have that sun-kissed glow then I felt I didn't look good enough.
I never used to wear sun cream or a hat or stay in the shade. I'm very lucky that it was caught early and hadn't spread," she said. 'They said this is really serious' There are around 17,500 new melanoma skin cancer cases in the UK every year,.
.. Claudia Tanner.