I WISH I HADN’T TANNED

THE SPOT LOOKED LIKE A BLEMISH, AND LATER LIKE DRY SKIN, SO SHAWNA DIMATTINA IGNORED IT. SHE NEVER IMAGINED SHE COULD HAVE SKIN CANCER AT 39—OR THAT HER FACE WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME

KRISTEN MASCIA

Shawna DiMattina winces when she recounts the full battery of skin sins she committed in her youth. “We called it ‘building a base,’ ” says the mom of two from Westfield, NJ, of how she and her pals spent summers deepening their glow with dangerously low-SPF suntan lotions. There were other transgressions: visits to the tanning salon before prom in high school; a spring-break trip to the Bahamas in college when she was burned so badly, her skin blistered and oozed; weekend after summer weekend in her 20s spent at the beach, forgetting to reapply sunscreen; periodic returns to tanning beds before weddings and events to get some color. “I felt good when I was tan,” Shawna admits. “I wasn’t thinking about the future.” SHAWNA’S CANCER TIMELINE She smartened up in her…

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Good Housekeeping (Digital) - 1 Issue, Jun-15

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