Skin allergy affected by the sun?

KentOnline / KMTV

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.

Transcript

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.

03:29Probably 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.

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