Dayanara Torres. INQUIRER FILE
MANILA, Philippines — Miss Universe 1993 Dayanara Torres disclosed on Tuesday that she had been diagnosed with skin cancer.
Torres announced the news in an Instagram post captioned: “Today I have some sad news… I have been diagnosed with skin cancer ‘melanoma’ from a big spot/mole I never paid attention to, even though it was new, it had been growing for years & had an uneven surface.”
The 44-year-old actress-dancer said her fiancé Louis D’Esposito had been “begging” her to get herself checked and even initiated to schedule an appointment with the doctor himself.
“After a biopsy & a second surgery last Tuesday the results, unfortunately, are positive,” Torres said.
She added, “Now we are waiting to see which treatment I will be receiving, but they have already removed a big area from the back of my knee & also they have removed 2 lymph nodes at the top of my leg where it had already spread.”
The beauty queen ended her post with a lesson she learned from experience: “PLEASE, never forget to take care of yourself.”
“If you see something or feel something different in your body have it checked… I had no idea skin cancer could spread anywhere else in your body,” she added.
Most melanoma cases, according to the Melanoma Research Foundation, can be linked to “exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays either from natural sources, like the sun, or from artificial sources.” /cbb