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SANTAQUIN — Years of sun-worshiping cost a Utah woman a large portion of her face. She worried she would never look normal again.
Looking abnormal was devastating for Gina Taylor following the removal of a basal cell carcinoma from her upper lip — a deep wound that on the surface appeared only as a small spot of flaky skin.
It's been nearly four months since her surgery, and she's looking like her old self again.
The repair was a challenge for plastic surgeon Kimball Crofts, who filled in the hole and designed and restored the delicate features on Gina's face.
"There was such a relief to wake up from the surgery and have them hand me a mirror and be able to look into the mirror and see that my face was completely closed," Taylor said. "I guess words can't describe what that feeling was like."
Taylor still has difficulty smiling because of numbness above her lip but as nerves regrow, the numbness too will disappear.
She's lucky and knows her skin cancer could have been preventable.
There was such a relief to wake up from the surgery and have them hand me a mirror and be able to look into the mirror and see that my face was completely closed. I guess words can't describe what that feeling was like.
–Gina Taylor
"Tanning was the ultimate part of my teenage years," said Taylor, who basked in the sun or visited tanning parlors on a nearly daily basis.
One million people per year now get skin cancer and doctors say 90 percent of those cases involve an accumulation of UV exposure.
"We've seen a real spike in melanomas in young girls," said Crofts, speaking about the more deadly form of skin cancer.
While tanning looks great, doctors say we fail to understand what tanning is all about.
"The only reason we tan is because the sun's rays, the ultraviolet rays, have damaged our cells, and in response, we produce the tan or melanin," Crofts said.
Crofts worries about young, year-round tanners — people who absorb the sun in the summer and then the rays from tanning parlors throughout the winter.
"I'm really not a proponent of saying no sun whatsoever," Crofts said. "I just think you need to be smart about it."
For Taylor, it's sun screen, long-sleeve shirts and caps or broad-rim hats anytime she's outdoors for any length of time.
"Your skin doesn't have to be tanned to be beautiful," Taylor said, "and it's a lot more beautiful without a big hole in the front of your face."
