Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015
By MACKENZIE CONCEPCION
Cronkite News

Christine Nelson said there’s a reason a tanning bed looks like a coffin. A melanoma survivor, Nelson said she has had numerous surgeries and takes eight doses of a chemotherapy drug every day.

And she said it’s all because she decided to add a little color to her skin with indoor tanning sessions 30 years ago.

“I didn’t lay out in the sun more than anyone else,” Nelson said. “But within weeks of me going to the tanning bed, my mole changed. And that’s when everything in my life changed.”

In front of advocates and lawmakers Wednesday during Cancer Awareness Day at the Capitol, Nelson called for a law to help others avoid her fate by barring minors from tanning beds.

She fought back tears as she talked about the strain fighting melanoma has put on her family.

“Melanoma is hard on a marriage,” she said. Click on Link to See Story.