One mother has recently shared her experiences about the vacations she enjoyed during her youth, revealing that she now attributes those trips to a serious health condition that has greatly impacted her life.
Sarah Goldup, hailing from the UK, began traveling with her friends two decades ago. During that time, “girls’ holidays” were synonymous with returning home with a bronzed complexion.
Now 42 and working as a freelance copywriter, Sarah reflects on how she never used a tanning bed, yet her skin still endured significant exposure during these vacations.
“I was never a sunbed user but that was the era of girls’ holidays when it was all about flying off to the sun and getting a tan,” she recalls.
A particular vacation to Tenerife at age 19 stands out in her memory. While some of her friends had naturally darker skin and tanned without issues, Sarah’s Irish ancestry made her more prone to sunburn, particularly as she forwent sunscreen entirely.
“Some of my friends had darker skin but I’m from an Irish background and I used oil instead of sunscreen, so I got really burnt,” she admitted.
Sarah now links this decision to her later diagnosis. At 38, she learned she had stage three melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer, which she believes was a consequence of those past sun-soaked trips.
“I was diagnosed with melanoma when I was 38, so I’m pretty sure the damage happened then but only started to emerge years later,” she shared.
Sarah had noticed a mark on her neck since her teenage years but dismissed it as a birthmark. It wasn’t until the mark began altering in shape and color that she sought medical advice.
“During that time, I told myself it was nothing to worry about. But then I got a call asking me to go into the surgery and was told it was malignant melanoma,” she recounted. “It was both shocking and upsetting.”
She underwent two surgeries to remove cancerous areas from her neck and chest after a second melanoma was discovered. Initially cleared, she started a year-long immunotherapy treatment as a preventive measure against relapse in August.
However, in November 2024, Sarah discovered an enlarged lymph node on her neck, near the original melanoma site. A biopsy confirmed the cancer’s return, necessitating further surgery to extract 35 lymph nodes, 25 of which were cancerous.
In April 2025, she embarked on a three-month regimen of combination immunotherapy drugs and continues four-weekly maintenance therapy until April 2027. Her scans have since been clear.
“I’m doing everything I can, I eat well, I exercise every day, I cover up in the sun and I use factor 50 sunscreen every day, even in the winter,” she stated.
Sarah, married to Lee Goldup, is a mother to two sons, Lucien, ten, and Rafferty, seven. She has become vigilant about protecting her children’s skin from the sun, even when they protest.
“I make them wear sunscreen and hats, they don’t particularly like it, but it’s so important,” she noted. “It’s not just lighter-skinned people who get skin cancer, darker skins can get it too. And you don’t have to go on a plane to get it, the sun here can also damage your skin.”
Sarah’s experience aligns with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which advises seeking shade, wearing protective clothing, and using broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher, reapplying it every two hours. The CDC also cautions against indoor tanning, as exposure to UV rays from tanning beds significantly increases the risk of melanoma.
“It could have been a different story for me, but thanks to advances in research and treatment, I’m still here and looking forward to enjoying more summers with my family and friends,” Sarah concluded.