A sunbed addict whose tanning habit started when he was 16 had a life-changing cancer diagnosis at the age of 21 after finding a bleeding mole. Jak Howell was using sunbeds five times a week by the age of 18.
He would tan for 18 minutes at a time, lying under UV lights for well over an hour every week. and said he played down his sunbed addiction to his mum after she voiced concern about it. In April 2021 he noticed an aggravated mole that later started to bleed, which doctors told him was melanoma, a type of skin cancer often caused by too much sun exposure.
Jak faced radiotherapy and then surgery to remove the lump, as well as lymph nodes from his groin. He then endured a year of immunotherapy treatment and spent Christmas 2021 in a hospital bed.
