Teen burned by unsafe sunbed left 'suicidal'

A teenage girl who suffered horrendous burns from a dangerous sunbed has told of the long, hard road to recovery from her injuries.

- By GARETH LIGHTFOOT

The 15-year-old got into the sunbed at the Abyss Tanning Studio on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough on June 17, 2022, her second visit to the salon in two days. The bed was a dangerous piece of equipment which should have been out of action, with bare tubes and no emergency cord.

She fainted and collapsed after eight minutes of a 14-minute session and was left lying against the insufficiently protected tubes of the tanning unit, suffering severe burns to her face, arms, legs and right shoulder. She later needed plastic surgery and was left with permanent scarring.

She had been allowed to use the sunbed without age, skin or safety checks, with salons not allowed to let anyone under 18 use sunbeds. And less than a month earlier, the salon had been warned by council officers the bed was “way out of tolerance” and should not be used until tubes were replaced.