Allegra's Story

Allegra ran the Robin Hood Half Marathon this weekend to raise money for the Psoriasis Association. She shares her story on living with psoriasis.

I have had psoriasis for almost 5 years now and started suffering from it during my mid teens!

It started as a small patch on my scalp that I just assumed I had always had, then when I got ill with suspected Covid-19 in March 2020 it quickly spread across my whole body. It took months before I got the correct diagnosis and started on topical steroid creams. It was clear that the creams had some effect but they were never able to fully clear my skin so I moved onto phototherapy three times a week during lockdown (which at least allowed me to get out the house a bit!)

Although this helped, it still wasn't effective enough to clear my skin so I moved onto systemic treatment. I was given Ciclosporin and then Methotrexate. I was taking Ciclosporin for the first half of year 13 as I was trying to prepare for my A Level exams. Although the medication cleared my skin, it came with horrible side effects, like making me tired, unmotivated and frequently ill. This meant I went from being able to study for exams and completing all homework tasks to barely staying awake in lessons and watching my understanding of my subjects rapidly decrease. After two hospital visits due to illness exacerbated by the medication, I was recommended to come off Ciclosporin thankfully just in time to get the grades I needed to make it into the University of Nottingham to study Veterinary Medicine. In the summer I tried Methotrexate but suffered from similar side effects and therefore successfully got the funding to move onto Adalimumab (biologic medication).

These injections worked amazingly until I arrived at university and struggled to stay healthy enough to maintain taking them every two weeks. I am currently trying to find the balance between the medication and my health to keep my psoriasis down as much as possible!

Having psoriasis during the majority of my teenage years has come with feelings of insecurity and not fitting in as I had never heard of the condition before however I have been lucky enough to have amazingly supportive friends everywhere I go and of course my family who always help me feel my best and not let the condition get me down.