Jaime Regen Rea
Jaime Regen Rea had a bubbly personality that sparkled.
“She was one of those people who never met a stranger. And, even when she was dying of melanoma, she always put on a smile. She didn't want others to feel bad for her,” said Donna Regen, Jaime's mother.
Jaime was only 29 when she passed away in March 2007 — just three weeks shy of her 30th birthday. She was married, pursuing the career of her dreams, and looking forward to her future. Yet her frequent use of tanning beds and the time she spent in the sun may have contributed to the cancer that ended up taking her life.
“As a teenager, Jaime wanted to look tan. She wanted to be popular. She wanted to do what everybody else was doing,” said Donna.
So on her lunch hours during high school, Jaime went to a nearby tanning salon just about every day. But when Jaime was 20, she noticed a mole on her back that started to bleed. It was melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
“I didn't know how dangerous tanning beds were,” said Donna. “Now we know that UV rays from tanning beds are intense and contribute to melanoma. Jaime went from being a tanning bed addict to a melanoma patient in just a couple of years.”
After Jaime's initial diagnosis, she fought melanoma for nine years, traveling across the country for treatments, which included chemotherapy, surgery and radiation that caused Jaime to lose weight and her hair. Meanwhile, Amanda, one of Jaime's relatives, was in high school and had begun to follow in Jamie's footsteps by using tanning beds.
“I knew that tanning beds could be harmful to your body, but I still did it. I wanted to be dark. I wanted to have color. In high school, it was the thing to do,” said Amanda. “I tanned knowing that Jaime had melanoma and it took her passing away for me to completely stop. I stepped away from tanning beds and never went back.”
Now a college student, Amanda has friends who use tanning beds and lie out in the sun. She tells them about Jaime.
“When somebody dies, it's not just the person dying, it's a part of that person in everybody that dies,” said Amanda.
“What I would say to mothers who allow their daughters to tan: This is preventable,” said Donna. “They are risking their lives. They are risking hurting people who love them. In Jaime's mind she wasn't planning on dying. She had too much living to do. She was vital and vibrant, and she just wanted to live.
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