Chelsea Tantum, a 30-year-old from Manchester who said she used sunbeds as a teenager to compete with friends for the best tan, has died after a cancer diagnosis. She received a late melanoma diagnosis at age 28, with the cancer at stage 3C and already spread to her spine, ribs, pelvis, femurs, lungs, liver, spleen, and breast. Just before her 30th birthday, she learned it had spread to her brain, leaving her with stage 4D cancer.
Campaign for stricter sunbed laws
While battling the illness, which at one point left her in a wheelchair, Tantum campaigned to warn others and to amend laws around sunbed usage. She revealed she began using sunbeds at 15 and was never asked for ID despite being under 18, something she later campaigned to change. She pleaded for mandatory ID checks for all sunbed users, which the government introduced in May this year.
Tributes and fundraising
Tantum also raised over £4,000 for the charity Melanoma Focus. She died on September 30, and tributes have poured in from family and friends. Family member Lee Craven said: “You never gave up fighting, right until the very end. Throughout everything she went through, Chelsea used her experience to raise awareness for her condition.”
Close friend Claire Louise said: “I watched you go through more than anyone should ever have to, yet somehow you still found the strength to use your own journey to educate, support and help others while fighting so hard for yourself. I genuinely don’t know anyone else who could have carried it all with the dignity, grace and strength that you did.”
Her funeral is set to take place on October 23 at Albion Church, Ashton, followed by Committal at Dukinfield Crematorium.
