Aussie mum of 3 Melanie Goanta, 37, gets melanoma from tanning bed

MELANIE Goanta is happily married but struggles to look at photos of her wedding, one of the happiest days of her life.

The 37-year-old mother of three boys, the youngest just seven, spent weeks leading up to her wedding using a solarium to look tanned for her big day.

Six years after her 2001 wedding to husband Alfred, she was diagnosed with a melanoma behind her right ear, and recently had surgery to remove a tumour from her lung after the cancer had spread.

JOY: Melanie Goanta, 37, used solariums before her wedding to Alf in 2001. She believes the experience prompted her melanoma.

She has been told her chances of survival are 20 per cent.

Mrs Goanta, of Cedar Vale, near the Gold Coast, believes her solarium use contributed to her cancer and wants to warn others of the dangers.

"I was going to the gym at the time and the gym played on my vulnerability," she said.

"I was getting married, wearing a white dress. Obviously, for your wedding, you want to look your best.

"The industry really plays on people's minds and makes them believe that the beautiful thing to do is to be brown. They said, 'Use a solarium, you'll get a nice base tan and you should colour for your wedding'."

Mrs Goanta had more than 12 solarium sessions in the lead-up to her wedding and has not used one since.

REGRETS: Melanie Goanta, 37, has a melanoma, which she says she got from a tanning bed. She is pictured here with sons Jayden, Cameren and Branden, and husband Alf.

"I look at my wedding pictures and think, 'I wasn't even brown'. It's really hard to look at them now. I think, 'Wow, I'm paying the price'.

"I should never have been allowed to use a solarium. I've got moles on my face, I'm light-skinned, I've got blue eyes. Queensland is the Sunshine State, the melanoma capital of the world. We don't need solariums. I don't think there's a place for them in Queensland society."

As Christmas approaches, Mrs Goanta gets angry with solarium businesses spruiking tanning sessions as gifts.

"It's crazy," she said. "It's like giving the gift of death."

SOURCE: news.com.au