Sometimes we don’t stop destructive behaviors until it’s too late. Tawny Willoughby, a skin cancer survivor who used a personal tanning bed four to five times a week as a teenager, has hopes a selfie can change that.

Willoughby, 27, posted a photo recently to her Facebook page revealing the gruesome realities of treatment for basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer. Willoughby’s skin, once smooth and even, appears covered in scabs and sores, her smile replaced with a blank stare.

“If anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in the tanning bed and sun here ya go!” she wrote in the post, which has now been shared more than 50,000 times. The Alabama mom says she now uses her own story and the safety of her 2-year-old son as fuel to spread the word about skin safety, which, above all, includes regular sunscreen use.

Willoughby was first diagnosed at the age of 21 and has had six more diagnoses since then, all of them but one basal cell carcinoma. The sixth was squamous cell carcinoma, another common form of the disease. Every six months, she says, she visits a dermatologist. She’s thankful the doctor has never found a melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

“Learn from other people's mistakes,” she wrote on Facebook. “Don't let tanning prevent you from seeing your children grow up.”