Beauty companies are now seeing a growing demand for bespoke skincare prescriptions. But someone who knows all too well about the impact of a skin condition is Bridie Hill - she lives in folkestone and has something called Disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis.
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00:00Can you start by just explaining exactly what your skin condition is and how it impacts you?
00:06It's a very scaly, round rash sort of thing and it tended to go on your lower limbs.
00:17According to the National Health, it's incurable, it's seen as cosmetic and there's no real
00:25treatment on the National Health.
00:28Yeah, I mean, what sort of effect does that have on your life then?
00:32Because supposedly, I mean, I would assume that your family and friends like to go out
00:35and enjoy themselves in the summer weather and that must put it down on things for yourself.
00:41I was, I started getting the symptoms in my 40s.
00:45I wasn't diagnosed for many years.
00:47I'm now 70.
00:49They mainly said, keep out the sun, wear covering up clothes, which is ridiculous, you know,
00:57for most people.
00:58I mean, it's not that we get massive sun here, but they said just to just wear sun cream,
01:05wear long clothes, which I did for many years.
01:09It's exasperated by the sun.
01:11I wouldn't say that makes it worse because I think my skin looks better when it has a little
01:17bit of a tan.
01:18It sort of makes the spots not so noticeable.
01:23But there's no cream available that will, there's no cure, but there are a cream from a pharmacy
01:31compounding company, Roseway, that actually does massively, massively help it.
01:38Yeah, and I was looking into compound pharmacies.
01:43They specialize in sort of preparing more custom medications and creams and things like
01:48that.
01:48Just explain how that's changed things for you, because as you say, it must be quite frustrating
01:53to just be told you have this skin condition.
01:56There's nothing we can do about it.
01:57It is the way it is.
01:58It must feel a bit helpless that you want a bit more support.
02:02And where can you actually go to get this?
02:05Well, I found this compounding pharmacy, Roseway, from a DSAP Facebook group from all over the
02:17world.
02:18And they were the only one that was in England at the time, and what I know of, that started
02:25to compound it.
02:26But to get the cream, because it's compounded by them, you have to go through a private doctor.
02:35So I had to go through there.
02:37But there are other ladies who've gone through the same journey to get it.
02:41And once you've got it, they will prescribe it, and they didn't have it delivered to you.
02:48And it just makes the spots so much paler, fader.
02:52In fact, they look like, sometimes they just look like freckles, which makes going out without
02:58having to wear tights in the summer and long clothes all the time.
03:03I mean, it must be...
03:04So to me, it made it so much better.
03:06Yeah, I mean, you know, having to put all these sort of measures in place just to be
03:12able to go out and enjoy yourself in the sun, it's not something that anybody would sort
03:15of dream of.
03:16I suppose lots of people kind of take it for granted, you know, the sort of sunny weather
03:19and the fact that you have to go out and put all these measures in place.
03:22It must be...
03:23I mean, do you go out as much nowadays?
03:28I do.
03:28I do.
03:29Probably more now, since I've been using the cream from Roseway.
03:33Before, I would probably avoid the sun, use very strong or very high-factor sun cream,
03:44wear thinner clothes like I've got on today, you know, lighter type ones.
03:50But now I can wear a dress that's not down to my ankles.
03:54I don't have my little grandson saying, Nanny, what's that red on your legs, those spots?
03:58I don't have people saying, God, you've been bitten by mosquitoes, you know, because that's
04:04what it looks like.
04:05They're so angry.
04:07But the cream, the compounding cream stops it.
04:12Yeah, and it's clearly made such a difference to your life as well.
04:16I just want to, for somebody watching that perhaps is worried for something that's a bit
04:20abnormal on their skin, and we're told by the doctors, by the pharmacists to keep track
04:25of your skin, your freckles, and if they change, if something.
04:29So tell us a bit about that diagnosis and when actually you thought, oh, I should perhaps
04:33get this checked in terms of giving some advice, really.
04:38It was a doctor.
04:39When my husband retired, we moved to Folkestone, and it became more prominent.
04:46And they just, the doctor, to be fair, was using, trying everything, psoriasis, eczema,
04:53everything.
04:54And she sent me to the William Harvey Hospital, and it was a, I think he was an Australian doctor
05:00there, and he said to me straight away, you have a condition called DSAP.
05:06No, nobody's ever heard of it.
05:08And I said, right.
05:11And he actually froze one of the larger red spots on my wrist off, and then there was
05:20no cream available.
05:21There was nothing.
05:22Just keep out the sun, keep your skin moisturized.
05:26And that was it.
05:29But it gradually has got worse over the years.
05:33It gets worse when I'm stressed.
05:38It's not as bad in the winter because you're covered up more.
05:44So it's just not well known.
05:49And they kept saying it's very rare in England, but it's not rare in England anymore.
05:54And they say it very, very rarely tends to skin cancer.
05:57But the last time I got a medication on the National Health, it was for skin cancer.
06:06So, of course, that only kills cancerous spots and didn't do anything to the DSAP spots.
06:15Just made them redder.