My sunbed tan is slowly killing me, says ex-Eastenders star and model
A former model and actress has weeks to live after refusing to wear protective goggles on a tanning bed left her with a fatal eye cancer.
Mother-of-one Debi Gibson, who appeared in EastEnders, chose to go without goggles to ensure modelling shots were free of tan lines.
Now the 42-year-old has been told cancer has spread to her liver and is terminal.
She said: “I want sunbeds banned, so some good comes out of my death. All this because I wanted to be brown. I used a sunbed all the time. There were no guidelines back then.
“There is pressure when you’re modelling to be a perfect colour. I thought a sunbed was safe. I didn’t know not using goggles would kill me.”
They told me I was going to die. It was horrendous but I came to terms with it. My daughter knows mummy is going to heaven.
Debi bought herself a tanning bed when she was just 14, saving up money from a paper round in her home town Bentilee, Staffs.
During her career she appeared as Cat Slater’s mum in a flashback episode of the soap. She also worked with Madonna in the musical Evita and was a body double for Spice Girl Mel C.
Debi gave up tanning in 2005 because she began to fear there was a cancer risk.
But in 2012 she had blurred vision and was told she had a choroidal melanoma – a cancer that affects the eye. Last year her left eye was removed after chemotherapy failed to kill a growth covering half her eyeball. Then this year came the news that her cancer had spread.
Debi, who lives with partner Darren Gibson, recalled: “They told me I was going to die. It was horrendous but I came to terms with it. My daughter knows mummy is going to heaven.”
The Sunbed Association said: “Millions of people use sunbeds safely and responsibly, which includes using protective eyewear.”