A Tennessee woman says she used to use tanning beds every day before she was diagnosed with skin cancer all over her body.
Lisa Pace, 43, of Knoxville, began tanning in high school and, by the time she got to college, it became a daily ritual.
In 2000, she was diagnosed with melanoma after a dermatologist had biopsied the moles on her right leg.
For the next nearly two decades, Pace would continue to battle skin cancer and has now undergone 86 surgeries in total.
In a recent blog post, she said although she's been knocked down 86 times, 'I got back up 87 times.'
Lisa Pace, 43 (left and right), of Knoxville, Tennessee, started occasionally using a tanning bed in high school and began tanning daily in college. She said she never knew that tanning beds were linked to an increased risk of skin cancer
Pace was first diagnosed with melanoma in 2000 at 23 years old, after a dermatologist biopsied moles that were on her right leg. Pictured: A scar on Pace's face from skin cancer surgery
Pace told TODAY that she began using tanning beds in high school because a friend had one at her home.
When she began attending Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, her tanning bed use became frequent.
'I started tanning every day, or every other day,' she said. 'It was addictive. People would say: "You look so good, you look tan", and it just encouraged me.
Pace was first diagnosed with melanoma in 2000 at 23 years old, after a dermatologist biopsied moles that were on her right leg.
Melanoma begins in the melanocytes, a type of skin cell that makes melanin and gives skin a tan or brown color.
The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 96,000 people will be diagnosed with melanoma in the US in 2019 and that more than 7,200 will die.
Skin cancer is the most common cancer and - although melanoma only accounts for one percent of skin cancers - it causes the majority of skin cancer deaths.
However, the five-year survival rate from diagnosis for localized, early melanoma is more than 98
