Consultant dermatologist Dr Justine Hextall has written a warning, ahead of the summer holiday season, about the dangers of trying to build a tan before a beach holiday. She stresses that the single worst thing people can do is use a sunbed, dismissing as a myth the popular influencer claim that a "base tan" from tanning beds safely primes the skin against holiday sun damage. The advice matters because tanned skin remains widely, and wrongly, associated with health and good looks, driving continued use of a product she says significantly raises the risk of the deadly skin cancer melanoma.

Sunbeds emit 95 to 99 per cent UVA rays, a wavelength that penetrates deep into the skin, accelerates ageing and increases melanoma risk, with exposure that can be three to eight times stronger than natural sunlight. Dr Hextall cites research showing that for people under 35, any sunbed use raises their relative melanoma risk by 59 per cent. She notes that the British Association of Dermatologists and the British Medical Association have called for a blanket ban, while the World Health Organisation classifies sunbeds as a class one carcinogen.