If I thought I could have potentially left my children without a mum, through having a tan, I would never have done it.”

Jane Cain began using sunbeds at a time when awareness of the dangers of sun exposure wasn’t what it is today.

Under recent regulations, sunbed use has been banned for anyone under 18. But back in the 1980s, no-one batted an eye when Jane, who was 14, opted for a tan under ultra-violet light.

“I went on a sunbed because my friends were going on them,” says Jane, now a 39-year-old primary school office administrator from Cullingworth.

Encouraged by the positive comments she received about her ‘healthy glow’, she started going on sunbeds once a week.

“There was no information about it being dangerous. We were given a loyalty card and if you went on so many times you got a free session,” she says.

Jane wasn’t aware of the potential harm she was causing to her skin until she was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, cancer of the outermost cells and the second-most common type of skin cancer in the UK, in September last year.

She had noticed a blemish on her collar bone but, thinking it would go away, she waited four months before going to see her doctor.

Jane says she was shocked when she was told it was skin cancer. “I just sobbed,” she says.

“I had to go back and have surgery but I was very lucky. If I had left it longer I would have needed a skin graft.”

Jane was given the all-clear before Christmas, and says her experience has made her more cautious of the sun. She plans to spend this summer in the shade.

She welcomes the Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010 which recently came into force, which will see steep fines for businesses allowing under-18s to use sunbeds.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction. If I had not been allowed on at such a young age, I probably would have thought twice about it,” says Jane. “By 18 you are a bit more clued up about these kind of things.”

The Act came into force after research revealed that more than two people under 35 are diagnosed with the deadliest form of skin cancer every day in the UK. Cases have trebled since the 1970s, according to Cancer Resarch UK.

Figures show that, on average, six per cent of 11 to 17-year-olds in England use sunbeds. Public health minister Anne Milton says cases of skin cancer are continuing to rise each year. She says the new law would go some way to help reduce one of the biggest cancers among 15 to 24-year-olds. “We want to protect under-18s from the dangers of sunbeds and reduce the number of young people getting skin cancer,” she said. “My message to young sunbed users is clear – you are putting your health at risk. Intense bursts of UV radiation can cause damage to your skin, even after just one use.”

While welcoming the regulation, the Sunbed Association believes it could have gone further to ensure a safer UV exposure level for all sunbed users by requiring all sunbeds to have a maximum UV output and ensuring properly trained staff are on the premises at all times.

A spokesman says: “The Sunbed Association welcomes all efforts to prevent minors from using sunbeds and, as such, its members have always been required to prohibit use by under-16s. This has now changed to under-18s and the association has issued all its members with a poster to display in their salons stating sunbed use is prohibited to under-18s.”

Graeme Hall, proprietor of the Tan Lounge in Wibsey, also welcomes the legislation. He says he always advises customers on how many minutes they can go on safely. “The danger is the misuse of them,” he says. Dr Andrew Wright, consultant dermatologist for Bradford Hospitals Trust, based at St Luke’s Hospital, has spent 25 years dealing with dermatology and skin cancers.

He says of the new regulation: “It will make people who use sunbeds aware that they are not completely safe, which is important, but I think also that it will make those who offer sunbeds for hire think a little bit more carefully about other safety issues, about how they operate.

“I think it is the beginning of an appropriate regulation for something we know is not particularly safe and is potentially dangerous,” adds Dr Wright.

He says that 20 years ago people weren’t as aware of the dangers of sunbeds, but this is now more widely recognised.

Vitamin D is necessary for health and mainly obtained by sunlight but, according to Dr Wright, only a few minutes of sunlight a day is sufficient to make our Vitamin D requirement.

With summer on its way, his message is for people to be aware of the dangers of over-exposure. “There is no such thing as a safe tan, and being burned is very dangerous indeed,” he says.