Helen Mindiola was quiet as she went about her work, changing the paper towel roll in the first-floor Main Library bathrooms. Inside her headphones, a murder mystery played out on cassette.

Young women shuffled in and out, stealing glances at her 69-year-old arms, covered up and down with what appear to be red sores.

"They're polite. They want to know about it, but they're afraid to ask," Mindiola said. "When you get to be my age, you just ask. So I try to talk to them and make them feel comfortable."

The doctors tell Mindiola the sores are pre-cancerous cells in her body emerging on the outside, a precursor to skin cancer that doesn't threaten her ability to live ,but certainly changed her way of viewing life.

Her pale blue eyes and milky skin give away her Norwegian blood - and also make her a red flag for doctors diagnosing skin cancer.

Mindiola gave her dermatologist, Dr. Greg Messenger, permission to discuss her condition, which is called actinic keratosis, or sun-induced scales. She has pre-cancerous cells, that, when treated, erupt in raw, red sores.

"The cream chemically kills off the cancer cells or pre-malignant cells," Messenger said. "It's a widely done procedure."

Her treatment is cream she applies twice a day to the infected areas - mostly her arms, but sometimes the lesions spread to her face. The cream is not too painful, she said, but it does burn.

The problem occurs especially in light-skinned people who spend lots of time in the sun, and Mindiola spent her share of time driving tractors in the sun and escaping from her eight brothers and sisters to play outside. She also was a sports fanatic, graduating from MSU in 1969 with a degree in physical education.

It's been about 20 years since Mindiola had her first outbreak of the premalignant cells. Her skin lesions can be painful if touched, so Mindiola said she tries to keep her arms open to the air for relief.

"It's better to keep it covered for other people, so they don't have to see it, but for me, it's better to be open," she said.

Now, Mindiola uses her position as a custodian at MSU to warn others about the dangers of time in the sun.

"If I can help just one person not have this happen to them," she said, adding that she always covers up in the sun, wearing long sleeves, hats and sunblock - and she recommends others to do the same. "All things have a positive twist.

"I consider this a learning situation."