…while Hindus’ and others around the world seek lighter Western skin.
She once used sunbeds up to five times a week because she thought her tan ‘made her look healthy’.
But Joanne Cobb’s obsession with having a golden glow has left her facing a possible death sentence.
She has found herself battling nodular melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, and has had to accept that her four young boys could be left without a mother.
The disease spread through her blood into her groin and pelvis and she had to have glands all over her body removed.
Doctors have given her the all-clear for now but say there is a 50 per cent chance the disease will return within five years – and if it does, it will be fatal.
I feel like I am living on borrowed time,’ said Mrs Cobb, 28. ‘I worry all the time about what will happen if I die. Missing out on my boys growing up is the thing that devastates me most.
‘The thought of them being left without a mother makes me cry.’