Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life
Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter
A student whose eczema got so bad that it sealed her eyes and lips shut so she could only “grumble” and turned her into a recluse who did not leave the house for weeks has regained her confidence after finding a “miracle” cure.
Megan Jones, 22, an opera student studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, recalls the horror of feeling like her face was “melting” when trying to hide her skin problems with foundation in November 2021.
Suffering with painful red and sore patches of skin across her face, Megan would refuse to leave the house for up to two weeks at a time.
Dealing with sore skin since being a baby, Megan would have flare-ups every seven years but recalls the worst happening just before her 20th birthday in 2021 when she woke up unable to open her eyes and mouth.
It reached a point where Megan moved out of her halls to go home and did not attend university or her part-time job for a month as she felt self-conscious of her appearance.
Having now experienced her first winter where her skin felt “normal”, Megan told PA Real Life: “I had never felt self-conscious about my skin before this most recent flare-up a couple years ago.
“Eczema was always something I had dealt with but it had never been this bad before and I just felt like everyone was staring at my skin all the time.
“Friends were nice but people I didn’t know weren’t even trying to hide the fact they were staring at me. The Tube when I was visiting was the worst, I just had all of these strangers staring.
“The fact that my skin has just stayed completely clear feels like a miracle.
“I’ve now got an app on my phone that allows me to scan the ingredients of products because I’m so wary of what I’m putting on my skin and I don’t want anything to trigger another flare-up.”
Megan has had eczema since infancy and recalled how her mum would describe just how bad her skin would get as a baby.
She said: “I was born with really awful skin and had other skin issues like jaundice.
“My skin was just horrendous and my mum sometimes described it as looking like I had burns all over my face and body.”
With help from prescribed creams, Megan’s skin problems were manageable but every seven years or so she would suffer from a flare-up.
She added: “It got really bad again when I was seven and again when I was 14, then six years after that when I was about to turn 20.
“Luckily, I never really felt too self-conscious about it, it was just something that I had that was a bit painful but it was never too bad until 2021.”
But while the other flare-ups would happen on her neck and arms, the most recent spread sore and red patches around her face, making her eyes swell.
She said: “I literally had no idea how to manage it, I just felt like everybody was staring at me, it was horrendous.
“It got to the point where I would just refuse to go outside for about two weeks at a time.
“I went on a trip to London just before my 20th birthday and I put makeup on to try and hide it because I just felt really awful about my red skin.
“It was winter and it was really cold and my skin just kept getting more and more flaky and red and cracked.
“It got to the point where I had to go to Boots to get makeup remover and moisturiser to take it all off, it just looked like my skin was melting.”
One day, after getting home from London, Megan awoke unable to even open her eyes and mouth after the eczema had crusted over her face, sealing them shut.
Unable to speak without severe pain, her mum phoned to make a doctor’s appointment for her while she used cream to remove the crust on her eyes so she could see.
Megan said: “It was counterproductive because within half an hour it would crust back over again.
“I was in so much pain, I couldn’t move my mouth, and I couldn’t talk, I could only mumble.”
The 22-year-old was prescribed steroid creams, antibiotics and anti-viral tablets but nothing seemed to work until her mum ordered a bottle of MooGoo moisturiser around a week after her birthday in November 2021.
Megan added: “She ordered the sensitive skin balm and the natural full cream moisturiser which I was using in tandem for a few days. I kid you not, within two or three days, my skin had gone from being absolutely awful – red, sore, dry and flaky – to almost clear.
“I could talk again, I could open my eyes and I was feeling a bit more full of life. But for me, I was able to go outside and that felt like a miracle.”
Now, Megan uses the £9.90 moisturiser twice daily – once in the morning and once at night – and has not experienced a flare-up since.
She recalled how this past winter was the first time she had noticed that her skin did not even seem dry in the colder weather.
Megan added: “It’s been one of the first winters where I’ve actually noticed that my skin was good.
“I didn’t have any flaky skin, my forehead didn’t look like it was peeling off. My arms, the back of my knees and ears all looked normal… it’s really, really great.”
Despite now having clear skin, Megan is still wary of using other products on her face and no longer wears foundation for her skin.
She said: “I just don’t like that full coverage anymore because I’m really conscious that something might trigger a reaction in my skin like that.
“I tend to focus on eyebrow and mascara products instead, that’s literally all I’ll use now.
“My skin is so great at the moment that I don’t feel like I need it anyway. For me, I’ve got the confidence of my skin back.”
