Tawny Willoughby, 27, recently shared a rather graphic photo revealing the harsh realities of skin cancer and skin cancer treatment. With the Facebook upload, Willoughby wrote, “If anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in the tanning bed and sun here ya go! This is what skin cancer treatment can look like. Wear sunscreen and get a spray tan. You only get one skin and you should take care of it.”

Willoughby explained that most of her tanning was done in high school; using tanning beds four to five times a week. Willoughby, along with many of her friends, even had her own personal tanning bed inside her home. As a result of the damaging UV rays, Willoughby was diagnosed with skin cancer at 21.

As a teen Tawny Willoughby knew the side effects of using tanning beds but felt “invincible”. After Willoughby’s diagnosis at 21, she used the tanning bed one last time before her wedding and ended up with more skin cancer at her next checkup.

“I’ve had basal cell carcinoma 5 times and squamous cell carcinoma once, excluding my face. I go to the dermatologist every 6-12 months and usually have a skin cancer removed at each checkup”, said Willoughby.

As the mother of a two year old boy, Willoughby was determined to spread awareness for skin cancer stating, “Learn from other people’s mistakes. Don’t let tanning prevent you from seeing your children grow up.”

Willoughby suggests that any new, suspicious skin growths that possibly bleeds sporadically or crusts should be evaluated by a dermatologist. The Alabama nurse also stated that she has tried countless forms of treatments and usually has a skin cancer removal per doctor visit.

“I don’t think that a lot of people realize what ‘skin cancer’ even means”, Willoughby told ABC News, “just seeing that image puts it into perspective.”

In less than a month, Tawny Willoughby’s Facebook post has reached over 67,000 shares.  Willoughby is also open to questions and thanks the public for the shares. Her story has been covered by many big news outlets, spreading awareness for the disease.

Tawny Willoughby posted an updated status reading, “Thank you ALL so much for sharing my post and all of the articles that have been written. I truly hoped to change at least one person’s view on tanning/skincare/sunscreen by posting my treatment photo and now I can’t believe how many people it has touched. This is ridiculous to even have to say, but I’ve gotten so many comments and messages today I am having a hard time keeping up.”

FSA Connection Questions:

1. What is the main idea of the article?
2. According to the article, what does the word sporadically mean?
3. Use the word sporadically in a sentence.
4. Pick a sentence from the article that best summarizes the entire piece.
5. Why is this story important?