The deadly tan jab: a DIY injection promising an instantall-over tan but as these women discovered, it can trigger heart disease and cancer
Starved of sunshine over the winter and desperate for a healthy glow, Terri Sotherton, 21, sat at her computer screen four weeks ago looking for a cheap and easy way to get a perfect all-over tan.
She didnt have to look far. Type the words quick tanning into Google and the first three online companies to come up offer cheap deals on tanning accelerators in the form of creams, pills and even injections.
Terri, from Bolton, bought three doses of a product called Melanotan for 25. On the website, it was claimed these one-milligram injections would make her browner faster than if she went on a sunbed or sunbathed.
Latest craze: Dangerous injection kits that claim to make you tan faster are easily obtainable on the internet
But this online shopping trip ended in the local hospital A&E. I didnt think about the risks, says Terri, a full-time mother to her 18-month-old daughter, Megan. What happened was terrifying.
The kit she had bought included syringes and vials of Melanotan, but came without instructions. After recalling a friend had used something similar, Terri rang her.
She told me to inject myself with one milligram, which I did, she says. Looking back, I cant believe I was so stupid, but I did it without a second thought because at the time all I wanted was a tan without any hassle, just like she had.
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I didnt see any effects until two days after the injection. Then bizarre things started to happen. My face became luminous and swollen. It had the strangest green tinge and became hypersensitive. It was itchy, painful and I couldnt bear to touch it.
Extremely frightened, she went to A&E at Bolton Hospital and told the doctor what she had done.
He had never heard of Melanotan, but went off to research it with their poisons unit, she says. When he came back, his face was grave. I started to panic.
Melanotan contains hormones that increase the levels of the brown pigment melanin in the body.
In December 2008, the drugs watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), outlawed the product, which has earned the nickname jabba-tan, after finding it causes skin discoloration, stops the healing process and lowers the immune system so dramatically that patients have got meningitis.
Yet, as Terri proved, you can still obtain it easily on the internet. While its sale is banned in Britain, it is not illegal to buy or possess it.
Dangerous: Original trials of the jab were halted amid concerns it caused high blood pressure it is now on sale illegally
He told me not to inject myself ever again, as my extreme reaction was so dangerous, says Terri.
I was kept in hospital for several hours, and then told to go home and rest, but to come back immediately if I felt faint or sick.
After a few days, moles and freckles started to appear all over her chest.
T! hey are still there and I am so worried they are a sign I might be developing skin cancer, she says.
Whats so upsetting is that this is all my fault. I feel so irresponsible because I have a baby to look after. I am still weak and shaken. I can only pray that I havent done any long-term damage to myself.
Terri may have been naive, but she is far from alone. Tan-accelerating products have become increasingly popular with beauty-conscious web-surfers seeking an easy fix.
They differ from fake tans, which colour the skin by dyeing it or prompting the outer layers to change colour.
Tan accelerators meddle with our body chemistry on a far deeper level. They can be swallowed as pills, injected or applied directly to the skin as creams.
They make our skin react to sunlight in a stronger way than normal, turning us brown faster than is natural.
Often these products are marketed as a safe option, with makers claiming they reduce the time you need to spend roasting in the sunshine or under ultraviolet lights in order to achieve a deep, bronze tan.
Yet the truth is very different. Chemicals in the products make the skin more sensitive to ultraviolet light by making our cells much more reactive.
In response, we produce more brown pigment melatonin more quickly. The results can be dangerously disfiguring, as Terri and other women have found to their cost.
Naturally sun-kissed: Many such as models Gemma Atkinson, Sophie Anderton and Chantelle Houghton want to top their tans up they tend to favour tanning sprays and beds - not the illegal jab
Dr Dinesh Maini, an expert in cosmetic medicine, is witnessing rising numbers of! patient s with skin problems linked to such products.
I often see patients complaining they are covered in sunspots, says Dr Maini, a former GP who runs a private skin-care clinic in Nottingham.
They are covered in brown and blotchy marks, some of which are so dark they look more like large moles. When I question them, many admit they have been using accelerator pills and creams to give them a fast tan.
Dr Maini believes the active ingredients in tanning accelerators are causing the problem. Many of the products available from overseas sellers on the internet use drugs banned in Europe for safety reasons.
One of these drugs psoralen is used in controlled prescriptions for people with skin problems such as psoriasis and vitiligo.
But it makes the skin more prone to damage from sunlight and in response the cells produces melatonin quicker in order to try to protect themselves.
Another drug found in tanning accelerators is tyrosine, which is also used for its apparent ability to stimulate melatonin. But its known side-effects include anxiety, heart arrhythmia and high blood pressure.
Like psoralen, it can be bought on internet sites as a pharmaceutical drug or as an ingredient in tanning accelerators. The dangers of psoralen prompted the EU to ban its use as a tanning activator in sunscreens in 1996.
Italian researchers found it can raise a persons risk of skin cancer by four times. The substance is an irritant that makes the skin more susceptible to ultraviolet light, and this can damage DNA.
The experts from the European Institute of Oncology in Milan say that anyone who has ever used a psoralen-based tan accelerator should get themselves regularly screened for melanoma the most dangerous type of skin cancer.
Those at highest risk are paler-skinned people with a lot of moles.
Just as disturbingly, psoralen can cause the skin to burn horrifically. Plastic surgeons at Swedens Linkoping University Hospital have report! ed two c ases of patients with burns on more than 90 per cent of their body.
The full injuries emerged only a week after they had smeared on a psoralen-based tan accelerator while using sunbeds.
Dr Maini is particularly concerned about the long-acting effects of tan-accelerating substances. They stay in peoples skin far longer thanthey think, he says.
I have seen people whose moles I have removed come back with skin discolouration at the mole sites. It turns out that they were using tan accelerators and these have affected the newly growing skin. Th at is very worrying.
Dr Andrew Affleck, a dermatologist at Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, has warned in the journal Clinical And Experimental Dermatology that fake tan use may confuse diagnoses and lead to suspect moles being treated wrongly. Patients may have to undergo cancer screening, or even treatment, needlessly and have unsightly scars from mole removals. How widespread are these problems? No one knows due to the fact the vast majority of products are sold from abroad over the internet. Even when the British authorities have declared their marketing and sale illegal, the trade still goes on.
TRIED AND TESTED, THE SAFE WAYS TO BRONZE YOUR BODY
Want your skin to have a healthy glow before summer? There are plenty of ways to get a subtle tan without resorting to drastic measures. Weve tested the best options so you dont have to ... KATE MELHUISH
SPRAY TAN
Invest in a professional spray tan for special occasions. St Tropez is the original and considered the best by many, as it adapts to your skin tone, giving you a natural hue (from 20, st-tropez.com for salons). Newcomer Sienna X (from 20, 01905 27070), is loved by Rachel Stevens and Lisa Snowden as it doesnt smell and the tan is adjusted to your skin tone.
GRADUAL TAN MOISTURISERS
Rather than slapping on fake tan, many women pref! er a moi sturiser that slowly builds up a natural, subtle colour.
Johnsons Holiday Skin Body Lotion (7.14, Boots) not only smells lovely but also leaves you with a streak-free all-over glow.
Vita Liberata Body Lotion Tan Enhancer (12.85, asos.com) is a favourite of Sienna Miller and Kelly Brook and has a light formula that gradually gives you a light tan.
FAKE TAN
Most of us have experimented with fake tan with varying degrees of success. The secret to an even glow is to exfoliate thoroughly beforehand and moisturise dry areas to avoid a build-up of too much colour. Fake Bake Beyond Bronze Airbrush Fake Tan, (13.61, Boots) is great, as the spray action makes it easy to tan hard-to-reach areas. Meanwhile, the Piz Buin Self-Tanning Lotion Colour Dial, (18.37, Superdrug) allows you to adjust the depth of tan so you can build the colour as you go.
BODY MAKE-UP
Instant tans are great: they last all day, but wash off in the shower. A quick spritz of Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs, (9.95, Boots) will give your pins a delicate colour and with three shades available you can choose how dark you go.
Alternatively, Ambre Solaires No Streaks Bronzer (7.82, Superdrug) has a multi-angled nozzle, which makes it easy to get an even, golden tan.
BRONZER
If you want to avoid fake tans you can give yourself a healthy glow with a dusting of bronzer.
Laura Mercier Bronzing Pressed Powder, (26, spacenk.com) is made with a foolproof formula that glides on easily so you cant go wrong. A more purse-friendly option is Rimmels Natural Bronzer (5.59), which contains SPF 8 for sun protection, too.
D espite most suppliers of melanotan being based abroad, they frequently use British website addresses, so customers never guess they are beyond reach of legal comeback should things go wrong.
The MHRA has not banned the sale of psoralen or tyrosene. According to a spokeswoman, neither comes under the agencys definition of a medicine (despite their medical use for skin problems).
Unless we have evidence they are being sold publicly in a lot of places such as gyms, we would not take it under our jurisdiction, she says.
The fact that you can buy it over the internet does not come under our jurisdiction. The internet is too hard to police that way.
Like Terri Sotherton, who ended up in hospital, Catherine Allcock, 22, also knows how badly things can go wrong if you use a tan accelerator. Five years ago, the florist who lives in St Helens with her fiance Michael, 25, and their 16-month-old son, Charlie injected herself with Melanotan. She bought it with a group of friends who all jumped at the chance of a cheap, lasting tan.
As soon as I had the injection, there was an intense wave of nausea. I felt as if my legs couldnt hold me up. I had to cling on to the furniture, she says. Her 25 parcel, bought over the internet, arrived without paperwork. It is the most stupid thing I have ever done, she says. I was surprised that there werent any instructions, but I thought a company couldnt possibly be so irresponsible as to send out a product that could do you any physical harm.
She recovered from her collapse and even went on to complete the course of three injections and ten days of sunbed visits. But the skin on one leg has been left scarred. After using Melanotan, a cut refused to heal and began to ulcerate. She fears it may turn cancerous.
I have been left covered in dark freckles and small moles. I am worried sick about them, she says.
Allcock believes the injections damaged her immune system because after using them she suffered from an almost constant cold, felt faint and nauseous and had the ulcerating wound.
One friend fared even worse. He became ill after injecting himself. A month later he was in hospital with viral meningitis, she says.
By the time he collapsed his skin was almost black and he looked as if he had been baked in the sun.
His survival was touch and go. A hospital doctor asked if hed done anything unusual, and he said hed injected a vial of Melanotan.
The doctor said that had caused the meningitis because of the effect it had on his immune system.
I would never do it again. People have to know how dangerous this substance can be. Each time I get a tan now my freckles and moles go darker.
Such stories have left skin experts concerned.
It is worrying that people seem to be ignoring all the health warnings about tanning injections, says Bevis Man, of the British Skin Foundation.
The problems that people have suffered as a result of using this type of product provide further evidence of why you should stay away from unlicensed products.
The very fact Melanotan is not licensed for sale in Britain should serve as the strongest warning against injecting a substance into your body for which we dont yet have the full safety data.
Consultant dermatol-ogist Dr Bav Shergill, a spokesman for the British Association of Dermatologists, warns that tan accelerators give people the false impression that their skin is protected against the sun.
A tan is a sign that our skin has been harmed by UV radiation and is trying to defend itself against further harm, he says.
Having a tan does not protect your skin from further damage. The protecting power of a tan is weaker than that of a low protection sunscreen of SPF 2-4.
This false sense of security is ! a major cause of potentially cancerous holiday sunburns, where people have pre-browned using tan accelerators, then gone abroad believing they can stay in the sun with little protection.
According to Dr Maini, many who use tan accelerators avoid sunblock for fear the accelerators will stop working.
This is alarming, as the evidence suggests the effects of tanning accelerators can last far longer than people expect, he says.
Instead of returning with beautiful skin, they may come back with burns and blemishes.
And perhaps something worse.
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