A total of 76 percent of adults said their skin problems, such as eczema, impacted their emotional well-being. Judith, a retired medical secretary from Kent, suffered from eczema and admitted that it severely impacted her life. “Eczema has always been a huge part of my life, ever since I was a baby. My first hospital visit was when I was just a few months old,” she said.
Judith explained: “I had always had scabby skin but it had been particularly bad and my mum desperately wanted to help me.”
She said, however, that back then they didn’t know much about eczema and “no one really knew what was wrong with me”.
Judith, who was adopted as a baby, was suffering from itching, pain and scabbiness when she was very young and had to be admitted to hospital, an experience she described as “very scary” for a two-year-old.
“When my mum came back the next morning, she tells me I cried out ‘You came back!’ in sheer delight.”
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“My mum burst into tears and gave me a huge hug, saying ‘Of course I did’.” Judith explained that her brother and dad had to move out of their family home so her mum could look after her with the support of the local district nurse.
“My older brother was also very protective of me. People would often stare or even give me dirty looks and he would tell them off in an effort to protect me, but it was tough, really tough,” she recalled.
Judith also said that children were “really mean; laughing and calling me names like a leper”. Sadly, one boy once did a “really ugly picture” that was meant to be her and stuck it on her back.
“It stayed there all day and I didn’t realise while everyone laughed at me. I’d say to my mum, ‘I can’t go to school’, but she would have none of it and I went. I felt dirty, nasty and never really happy.”
After her traumatic experience at school, Judith spent the next 45 years in and out of doctor’s surgeries and hospitals and tried “everything available” but unfortunately, nothing ever made a significant long-term difference.
Eczema was in Judith’s mind constantly and she would often wonder “How can I hide it?” or “Are people staring?”.
Her life was “incredibly stressful and demoralising” and the stress and anxiety can “make the eczema worse and my mood plummets further; it affects your mental health”.
She would always try to cover up as much as she could, “gloves in winter, scarves, trousers, long sleeves – even in summer – but sweat makes it worse so that can just cause a vicious circle”.
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Judith met her husband just 20 years ago, and before that, she had only had two serious relationships because eczema would often “sabotage” them.
She wore a beautiful dress on her wedding day, but even on that day “eczema had to make itself known”. She explained: “My dress had long, flowing chiffon sleeves to hide the scabby patches on my arms and one of our guests made a comment that my face was looking pretty red!”
Eczema isn’t just itchy but it can be very painful and unsightly, and “really consume your life”.
Luckily, Judith recently found a great dermatologist who she now considers her “health hero”. He prescribed her “my secret weapon,” Fludroxycortide Tape, “or as I like to call it ‘magic tape’.”
She explained: “It’s a transparent medicated surgical tape which has just turned things around for me. I was told to wear it over my fingertips, and overnight the tape stopped the itchiness and redness, sealed up the splits and calmed down the scaling.
“It’s much easier to use than the lotions, emollients, and gels I have had for eczema in the past. It really is magic, the eczema on my hands disappears overnight. It’s incredible!”
She added: “It’s an amazing solution to a very challenging skin problem. Thanks to the Fludroxycortide Tape I’m a different person now.
“If I score my happiness and quality of life before it was a two out of 10, now it’s a 10 or maybe a nine on a bad day thanks to my magic tape.”
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