UK- [Daily Mail]- Zita Farrelly began using a sunbed at the age of 14 and saved up to buy one when she landed her first job.

For seven years she had tanning sessions twice a day. When her worried mother stopped her using the sunbed more than twice a week she borrowed a friend’s.

Miss Farrelly gave up sunbeds at 21 but by then it was too late. The mother of two contracted skin cancer and last month died aged 29 from the disease.

Miss Farrelly found a mole on her leg last August and was diagnosed with melanoma.

Doctors told her they believed the skin cancer was caused because she spent so much time on sunbeds. She received chemotherapy and other treatment at the Christie cancer hospital in Manchester, but specialists were unable to save her.

Miss Farrelly, from Salford, died three days after her daughter’s first birthday. Her partner and her aunt warned others of the danger of sunbeds. Phil Burtwistle said the machines had “destroyed the family’s lives”.

He said: “Zita told me days before she died that she wished she could make a documentary about the dangers of using them.

“She said if only one person was saved by seeing what had happened to her, she’d be happy. People need to know that they can be so dangerous.

“I’ve basically spent the last year watching my girlfriend die before my eyes. I don’t want any family to go through what I went through and I think people should avoid sunbeds at all costs.

“It’s hard because they are on every street corner but there are other ways to tan, such as spray tans and the fake moisturisers you can get.”

Miss Farrelly would have celebrated her 30th birthday on July 18. Her aunt, Tina Farrelly, appealed for others to learn from her niece’s death.

“I see young girls coming out of tanning salons burned and looking like lobsters,” she said. “I feel like grabbing them and telling them what can happen. If they knew the pain Zita went through, I’m sure it would make them stop using them.”

Mrs Farrelly added: “She saved up for a sunbed when she got her first job. Her mum stopped her using it more than a couple of times a week but she would go to a friend’s house to use theirs.

“When fake tans and health warnings came out she stopped using them but unfortunately she stopped too late.”

Mr Burtwistle said one of Miss Farrelly’s final wishes was to see her daughter Phebie with her presents on her first birthday. “She battled on and managed to keep herself awake to see that,” he said. “But soon after she fell asleep and never woke up again.”

Mr Burtwistle said “the worst thing” is knowing that Phebie and her seven-year-old brother Caldhan will have to grow up without their mother.

“Although Phebie is too young to know what is going on Caldhan is finding it really hard to cope,” he said.

“He’s all right while he is busy but as soon as he stops he really misses his mother.”

Miss Farrelly’s funeral, which is taking place today at St James Roman Catholic Church in Salford, will be a celebration of the former telephonist’s life.

Mrs Farrelly said: “Nobody is allowed to wear black and we’ve asked everyone to bring helium-filled balloons to release when she’s buried. Her coffin is fluorescent pink and she’ll be in a carriage drawn by Shire horses.”

Mr Burtwistle added: “She picked what she wanted for the funeral and would hate people to be upset. It should be a happy occasion.”