'I had a tiny spot on my eyelid - then doctors told me cancer was growing under my skin'

Seven years ago, Jessica Zbinden-Webster, then 26, noticed what looked like a blocked pore on her lower eyelid. She’d had a history of so assumed it was a blemish and ignored it, expecting it to go away. But it didn’t. “One morning as I was sitting at my desk, I rubbed my eye and the skin of the lesion came away and started bleeding,” says Jessica, now 33.

“I went to the GP the following day and he told me I had and that I needed to go to hospital.” That tiny “spot” on Jessica’s eye was a non-melanoma cancer called a (BCC), one of the most common types of skin cancer. The surgery she needed to remove it meant losing the whole of her lower eyelid.

Around 75% of non-melanoma skin cancers are BCCs. They develop from basal cells, which are found in the deepest part of the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis). “Basal cell carcinoma is one of the slowest growing cancers,” she says. “But mine was quite rare, an infiltrative basal cell carcinoma. The tumour had roots like that of a tree and it was growing under my skin.

"The hole left by surgery to remove it was so big that I needed to have a skin graft. I had two surgeries, back to back on consecutive days - one to take the eyelid off and then one to do the skin graft. My surgeon took the skin from the inside of my arm, shaved it so it was wafer thin and then put it on my eyelid. Since then I’ve had five laser surgeries to smooth the skin out because the skin under the eyes is unique. It’s the thinnest on your body and needs to operate in a specific way to contract and work like normal eye skin.”

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While her surgeries and laser procedures have been painful and distressing, what might have happened if that little lesion had been left alone is even worse to imagine. “If I hadn’t had it removed, it could have spread to the bone or to the optic nerve, which would have been a highway to my brain. It needed to come out.”

Today Jessica remains cancer-free, and she says that, “with a bit of make-up you can barely see the graft”. Yet, because she suspects her cancer was caused by getting burnt as a child, the shadow of the disease remains. All she can do is protect herself carefully against any harmful rays and hope for the best.

“I’ve never been a sun-worshipper but having blue eyes and fair skin, I’m genetically predisposed to having sun damage. As a child I was sunburnt fairly frequently on summer holidays playing outside. I now know that burning as a child can double the chance of getting skin cancer in adulthood.”

Jessica thinks her cancer first appeared when she was 24. “I’d always associated the disease with septuagenarians who’d been sun-baking for decades. It came as a shock to learn that skin cancer rates are increasing for young people.”

Last year reported a record high of 20,800 cases of skin cancer in the UK this year. While the biggest rise was in adults over the age of 80, there was a 7% increase in young adults between 25 and 49. While 90 per cent of skin cancers can be prevented by using sunscreen, Jessica was shocked to discover that the SPF () she would rely on to cover her skin every day for the rest of her life wasn’t classed as a medical necessity, but as a cosmetic. As such, it is taxed as one with of 20% levied on every bottle.

This means that a £10 bottle of would cost £8.30 without the VAT; multiply that over the years and the additional cost rapidly mounts up. Jessica was so incensed that she joined an (charity Melanoma Focus runs the VAT Burn drive) to launch her #AxeTheSPFTax campaign to lobby the government to make sunscreen more affordable by removing the VAT on SPF.

“I was outraged that as a skin cancer survivor, a basic healthcare essential was classed as a cosmetic item. Furthermore, we’re in a cost of living crisis and no family should be priced out of cancer prevention.”

Jessica has the British Skin Foundation and consultant dermatologists on her side, as well as retailers who are discounting their sunscreen by 20%, such as online retailer Face the Future which has its own VAT Burn campaign until October 31. Participating brands on the site include La Roche-Posay, Heliocare, Ultrasun, Avene, Altruist, Saltee, TYF, Hello Sunday, Bondi Sands, Bioderma, Eucerin, Pharmaceris, Sun Bum, Coco & Eve, EVY and Coola.

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In a YouGov study of 2,081 people, Face the Future found that 38% of respondents would be encouraged to buy SPF if it was more affordable; some 12% were unaware that SPF products are subject to VAT and 70% feel it should be removed from sunscreen.

However, the Government has no plans to ditch VAT on sunscreen. A spokesperson said: “As part of our 10-year plan to reform the health service, and through a national cancer plan, we will fight cancer on all fronts, from prevention to diagnosis, treatment, and research.

“High-factor sunscreen is on the prescription list for certain conditions and is already provided VAT-free when dispensed by a pharmacist to these patients.” (This includes people with genetic disorders and conditions and on medication that cause photosensitivity.)

A source says the Government supports safety campaigns that advise using SPF as part of a wider set of precautions including avoiding long periods of exposure, staying in the shade during peak hours and protecting themselves with a hat and sunglasses. “Reliefs do not always represent the best value for money as there is no guarantee that cost savings would be passed on to consumers,” the source said.

It’s not good enough for Jessica. “ has shown amazing leadership on this, they got rid of all sun bed tanning salons and removed the VAT equivalent on sunscreen. It’s a great example of policy makers influencing public health. Skin cancer can be prevented in 90 per cent of cases, but stopping those cases won’t just help people on an individual level, it will help our state - the NHS will spend £465 million a year on a highly preventable form of cancer.

"Skin cancer prevention is not a luxury, I can tell you as someone who’s lived through the reality of it. No individual can be priced out of it." Jessica’s own sunscreen regime is a daily necessity. “I wear SPF every single day. The most important tool for everyone has to be good quality sunscreen, especially on your face where the skin on your face is some of the thinnest and most sensitive on your body.

"You want to make sure your face is fully covered by two fingers worth of sunscreen lotion - I hold my fingers out and spritz them until they’re covered. I’ve had one cancerous lesion and it’s highly probable that I will have more as I go. It won’t just disrupt my life, it will cost the state tens of thousands to treat each time.”

As spring gets underway and our thoughts turn to summer, Jessica can’t feel carefree as she used to. “I think that for anyone who’s been touched by cancer in any form, you can’t totally inhabit the person you were pre-diagnosis, the anxiety about your condition doesn’t end when your treatment does.

"I will always be looking over my shoulder now, concerned about any new lesion that might pop up. It’s made me anxious but really motivated me to call for change so that more people can avoid this fate.”

Visit @jessicazwebster on Instagram.com for the link to her petition; see facethefuture.co.uk/collections/vat-burn

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