Influencer left with 60 face stitches after sunbed habit led to skin cancer

A social media influencer who used sunbeds without sun cream as a teen ended up looking “like Frankenstein” with 60 stitches across her cheek – after being diagnosed with skin cancer two decades later.Anna Papalia, 48, noticed a spot on the side of her nose five years ago which a dermatologist told her was “just a cyst” and “no big deal”.She went to an aesthetician for a facial and to extract the spot, they flagged a small mass behind it.But Anna, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said they reassured her that she’d had it checked already, and it was only a spot.Two years later she decided to get the spot removed because it would get irritated if she scrubbed her face too hard – believing it was purely a cosmetic decision.But this time around a different dermatologist said it needed to be biopsied immediately, cut it off and sent it to the lab the same day.Anna, a content creator with over five million followers, was told just days later that she had basal-cell carcinoma and the entire area of her skin needed cutting away which was two and a half centimetres in diameter.She then needed long cuts made down to her chin and across her cheek to be able to stretch the skin over the wound where the skin portion of had been removed, and she woke from surgery with 60 stitches.Three years on, Anna is healed and raising awareness of sun safety, avoiding sunbeds, and promotes getting spots checked.Anna, a mum-of-two, said: “I hadn’t been careful in the sun, I’m a child of the 80’s and 90’s.“I didn’t wear suncream, I used sunbeds and I got burned all the time.

I did all the things you’re not supposed to do.“When you’re in your teens and 20s you feel bulletproof, you get cocky – ‘it won’t happen to me’.“The spot itself had been smaller than a dime — but when I opened my eyes after my surgery, I had 60 stitches in my face.“It was unbelievably traumatising and shocking.

I thought I’d look like Frankenstein forever.“Now, it’...