How Skin Cancer Changed My Life
The sun worshipper
Hedy Gold, diagnosed with melanoma at age 31
As an adolescent, the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, native basked in the sun every chance she got. “It was like a drug,” says the self accessories director, 39. “I loved the feeling of warmth on my skin, and I was never dark enough, so I always skipped SPF.” During high school, in pursuit of an everlasting glow, Gold walked into a tanning salon and sprang for an unlimited-access membership. (The shocking truth? Every day, approximately 1 million people visit tanning beds, according to the American Academy of Dermatology in Schaumberg, Illinois. That might explain why there are more indoor tanning salons than there are Starbucks or McDonald’s in many U.S. cities, as a study from San Diego State University reports.) Even in the dead of winter, Gold would hit the blue bed several times a month. After graduation, she headed to Arizona State University at Tempe, where she lounged with friends at campus pools in between studying to get straight As. “Lying outside made me feel good, and I thought it made me look good, too,” Gold says. (Tanning may be addictive in the same way alcohol and narcotics are, a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology finds.)
Hedy Gold, melanoma at 31. Courtesy of Sonja Pacho / SELF
In 2001, Gold moved to New York City to pursue a career in the fashion industry. “I missed being in the sun so much,” says the naturally fair-skinned, green-eyed blonde (traits that further increase her risk). So she reunited with her beloved tanning beds as often as she could — sneaking in appointments a few times a month — a hobby that cost her hundreds of dollars a year. “I didn’t realize I was putting my life in danger,” she says. “Then I got a major wake-up call.”
A few weeks before starting a new job as an accessories editor at a magazine, Gold flew home to spend time with her family. Her father, a general-practice doctor in Michigan, noticed that a mole on the left side of her face seemed bigger, darker and a different shape than he had recalled; he suggested she get it checked out by a dermatologist — asap. “Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed the mole had changed until then,” Gold admits.
She scheduled an appointment with one of the dermatologists at Juva Skin and Laser Center in NYC the week she returned. Although the mole didn’t look abnormal — it wasn’t unevenly shaped, noticeably large or multicolored — she explained that its size and color had recently morphed. Because of Gold’s detailed description, her doctor elected to shave off a small piece of the growth (a noninvasive method often used to remove a few surface skin cells) so it could be biopsied.
A few days later, Gold got a phone call from her doctor: The small tissue sample had come back from the lab as abnormal. Within hours of hanging up, she went back to the derm’s office and learned that the growth was malignant melanoma in situ (a stage of melanoma that is confined to the skin’s upper layer but still has the potential to penetrate deeper into the dermis). “I was in complete shock,” Gold says. “I thought, How could I have skin cancer?”
“Her diagnosis was actually good news,” says Michael Bruck, M.D., director of Juva Skin and Laser Center, who removed Gold’s cancer. “It meant that if it was taken out, we’d have a cure. So that’s exactly what I did.” A week after the surgery, which required the excision of about a half inch of tissue and 3 inches of stitches, Gold went to Manhattan’s Bryant Park to attend Fashion Week, where she reviewed several designers’ shows along with her beautifully attired peers. “Everyone was concerned when they saw the large white bandage taped across my cheek,” Gold recalls. “I told my story to anyone who would listen to help raise awareness.” A test of tissue surrounding the growth came back as benign, which confirmed that the cancer had been completely removed.
Continue to read the entire story of three women’s lives affected by skin cancer at The Today Show – Health.
