What, me worry?

- Rachel Peterson wasn’t thinking about cancer, as she spent countless hours in the sun as a kid, often to the point of painful sunburns. Even in the ninth grade when she got a membership to a tanning salon, cancer was the furthest thing from her mind. It was cool to be tan. All her friends went tanning. It made her look good. But in January, Peterson, a blonde, fair-skinned 18-year-old, was diagnosed with melanoma — the deadliest form of skin cancer — and had a small, black mole on her leg removed. Doctors told her she was lucky, that in five years the cancer would have spread “out of control,” Peterson recalled. “I understand it’s really popular to be tan, but it’s your life you’re dealing with,” said Peterson, of Bowie, who attributes/blames her skin cancer to her overexposure to Ultra Violet rays. “It’s kind of silly,”... [read full story]