What Makeup Does Norah O'donnell Wear

CBS Evening News Ballast Norah O'Donnell on Why Tanning Just Isn't Worth It

"More people develop pare cancer because of indoor tanning than lung cancer considering of smoking," says the melanoma survivor.

When CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell got a call from her dermatologist dorsum in November. 2016, her earth was forever changed.

The biopsy from a contempo mole check had come up dorsum — and it was melanoma.

Devastated, the announcer understandably felt a range of emotions after she spoke with her doctor. Luckily in her case, the cancer was totally treatable.

"The adept news is that while skin cancer is the nearly diagnosed cancer, information technology is something that'southward entirely preventable and is curable if caught early," O'Donnell tells InStyle. "That for me is the hopeful message."

Now, O'Donnell wants to share her own story and bulletin with the world to assistance others prevent a melanoma diagnosis in the first place.

Hither, we spoke with the news anchor about just that, plus what preventative care looks similar for her now, and why tanning just isn't worth information technology.

The mole was found on your back, which can arrive hard to spot. How did you find it originally?

Like virtually women, sometimes you lot forget to go to your preventative checkups. I realized that I had non had a checkup in a few years at the dermatologist, and my family has a history of peel cancer. Because I'm a journalist, I had heard near Dr. Elizabeth Hale, so I called her up and made an appointment. In the process of this skin check, she had discovered the mole and said, "Let's have a look at it." For me, these small biopsies are pretty regular, and then I didn't really retrieve anything of information technology — until she called me. It was Black Friday weekend and I was doing some shopping in a Bloomingdales. She said the biopsy had come back and it was a form of melanoma. I was actually stunned. The lesson for me was that I demand to take my health more than seriously.

Wow. What exactly was going through your mind at the time?

She emailed me and said, "Can you touch base?" I had so forwarded it to my sister who is a surgeon and she was similar, "It'southward probably simply basal prison cell or something." But Dr. Hale wanted to speak immediately and she said, "Your biopsy came back and its melanoma." I knew enough to know that melanoma is very serious, but the good news was that it was 100% curable. But, y'all know, I started to tear upward and cry in the heart of the Bloomingdales. I felt trapped, and to exist honest, I felt a little scrap ashamed. I felt extremely vulnerable. I felt like possibly I had done it to myself, I had enjoyed tanning when I was growing up and that sort of affair.

I think going to tanning beds in the '90s and early '00s was then common and no one really took the risks seriously at that time.

We did non. My business with tanning beds was pure vanity, and also considering I am fair-skinned, I thought, "Well if I go tan in a tanning bed and so I won't be as sunburned when I go exterior," which is faux — that is a misconception. Simply now we know how incredibly dangerous tanning is. I hateful more people develop pare cancer because of indoor tanning than lung cancer because of smoking.

Wow.

Oh yep. Rates of melanoma have increased by nearly 800% among women between the ages of 18 to 39 from 1970 to 2009, and experts point to tanning beds as the principal culprit.

Norah O'Donnell

There are a lot of people who seem to think y'all only need an annual concrete, then a paps from your gynecologist and you lot can merely do skin checks at home. Why is seeing a dermatologist just every bit important?

I'm not qualified to self-diagnosis myself. It's the same with cocky-chest exams, there'southward a reason why we go in to encounter people who are qualified to practice this. We should be looking at our bodies and examining to encounter if something'south wrong, simply let'south also reimagine our relationship with healthcare providers, they're incredibly important. These preventative checkups are then incredibly important. You're supposed to meet a dermatologist every yr for a peel bank check — no affair your ethnicity, even if you don't take a family history. If nosotros can forbid health crises, it's going to better the quality of our lives and lengthen our lives.

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What does your preventative skincare routine look like at present?

I put on — even if I'grand walking at eight o'clock in the morning and it's 45 degrees out — total spectrum sunscreen on my confront, SPF 30. Even if I have a hat and glasses on. I put on sunscreen every single morning. I haven't had a sunburn in more than than five or six years.

That's such great news to hear! As a mom, what's your advice for parents and kids when it comes to the important of sun protection?

Sometimes vanity can be a cracking motivation [laughs]. And the truth is, 90% of skin aging is caused past the sun. So if you want to have cracking peel when y'all're older, go along information technology out of the sun. For children — I have three of them and they certainly think I'm bugging them too much when I enquire them to put on sunscreen at every moment — but my kids saw when I had skin cancer. And because it was on my back, they had to put the Aquaphor on my scar, they saw what I had. Then they fully understand how dangerous peel cancer is. I remember a doctor could speak to this better than I could, merely preventing a sun burn is actually the most important thing. So just making sure to apply and re-employ [sunscreen] throughout the day. And go get checked [by a doctor] — it'll salve your life.