Bride dies after using banned tanning drugs

London: A bride-to-be who was obsessed with having bronzed skin died in a sunbed salon only weeks after injecting herself with banned tanning drugs.

Jenna Vickers, 26, collapsed inside a cubicle at the shop after telling friends she was “very happy” with the unlicensed tanning products.

It is believed she had bought a GBP25 kit containing melanotan off the internet three weeks earlier.

This is a synthetic hormone which encourages the production of melanin, the pigment which turns the skin brown when exposed to sunlight.

Sales of the product are banned in the UK but it is available online across Europe and America. Health watchdogs have warned the side effects can be “extremely serious” and studies have linked the injections to heart problems, high blood pressure and immune system damage.

Vickers had gone for her regular sunbed session at the Tantastic salon near her home in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on Monday morning.

After she failed to come out of the cubicle, the manager broke the door down to find her lying lifeless on the floor. She called 999 and tried to revive Miss Vickers, who was taken to hospital but declared dead soon after.

A post-mortem examination has been carried out but the cause of death has not been established.

It is not known if Vickers, described by friends as a “gorgeous, sweet girl”, injected the tanning product on the day of her death but she told friends she used it several weeks earlier.

Last night Vickers’ fiance, Bryan Watson, 26, and mother Shirley Mather were too upset to comment.

In a message posted on Facebook, Mather said: ‘Just cannot believe you have gone, you was the best daughter, best friend. We had a great mother-daughter relationship any one would wish for, you are goin to be so very sadly missed.

“I cannot put into words how heartbroken I am. Sleep tight the angels are lookin after you now. See you again one day and we will have a catch up, love you from the bottom of my heart bye for now my love.”

Yesterday floral tributes were left outside the tanning salon and friends left messages on a Facebook site set up in her memory.

Lisa Rourke, manager of Tantastic, said: “What’s happened is really upsetting. Jenna used to come in here quite often to use the sun beds.

“I knew she was using tanning injections — someone mentioned it — but she certainly didn’t get them from here. We don’t sell them and I don’t know anyone else who uses them. It’s dangerous, because no one knows the side effects.”

An inquest was opened and adjourned into Miss Vickers’ death yesterday.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said melanotan is unlicensed and therefore illegal for sale in the UK.

A spokesman said they had the power to take down websites and fine anyone caught selling it. They added: ‘The MHRA would warn people not to use this product.

“It is unlicensed in the UK and the side effects could be extremely serious.”

In 2009, researchers at Liverpool John Moores University published an editorial in the British Medical Journal suggesting that use of melanotan “could damage the immune and cardiovascular systems as well as triggering other problems”.

Bevis Man, of the British Skin Foundation, said it was “worrying” that individuals routinely ignored warnings about tanning injections.

He added: “The fact that the MHRA have yet to grant a license to this product ought to serve as a warning to potential users.

“There are other ways to get a tan without using an unregulated product or going on a sun bed.”