This Woman’s Gruesome Selfie Will Have You Reaching Frantically for Sunscreen Another reminder that tanning beds are evil Shutterstock

You’ve heard that tanning is bad for your skin. But hearing it and actually being confronted with what can happen when you tan are two completely different things.

That’s what Tawny Willoughby is hoping to achieve. The 27-year-old, who used tanning beds in her teens at least four times a week because her “tans faded too fast,” posted a photo on Facebook of the painful blisters and scars she has incurred from her cancer treatment.

That’s right—she developed cancer from her tanning, and sadly it wasn’t just once. Tawny was first diagnosed with skin cancer at the age of 21, and since then she’s had basal cell carcinoma (the most common form of skin cancer) five times and squamous cell carcinoma once.

She sees her dermatologist every six to 12 months and usually “has a skin cancer removed at each checkup.” Yikes.

 

If anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in the tanning bed and sun here ya go! This is what skin cancer treatment...

Posted by Tawny Willoughby on Saturday, April 25, 2015

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“This what skin cancer treatment can look like,” she said in her Facebook post. “Wear sunscreen and get a spray tan. You only get one skin and you should take care of it. Learn from other people's mistakes. Don't let tanning prevent you from seeing your children grow up. That's my biggest fear now that I have a two-year-old little boy of my own.”

She added, “Skin cancer is not always moles, only one of mine have been a mole. Get any suspicious, new, and growing spot checked out. Anything that doesn't heal, possibly bleeds on and off and crusts. The sooner you find it, the less likely it will leave a disfiguring scar or grow deep enough to metastasize. Melanoma kills, non-melanoma disfigures (and can also kill).”

RELATED: The New Signs of Skin Cancer That You Need to Know About

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer, and it can be deadly. According to the American Cancer Society, there were 76,100 new cases of melanoma reported in the U.S. last year and 9,710 deaths. Unfortunately, the number of new cases of melanoma in the U.S. has been increasing for the last 30 years.

You probably don’t need to be reminded of this, but it’s worth repeating: Don’t tan, wear sunscreen religiously, and protect your skin when you’re outdoors. It's about more than keeping your skin looking flawless—it can be the difference between life and death.