Megan's Story

Megan shares how her psoriasis impacted all aspects of her life when it was at its worst, but she now has a more positive outlook.

So it started in February 2023, I recently was struggling with quite a lot of upper respiratory tract infections. I had glandular fever, strep A & 2 chest infections in the space of 3 months. I genuinely thought these were just viral and would go away, with working in a hospital and for the NHS myself, I had nothing going through my mind that anything bad was going to happen. I started to get what looked like a heat rash on the front of my torso, which then travelled to the back. I thought this was really bizarre and odd and wouldn’t have put Strep A and a skin condition hand in hand.

Weeks had passed by and I’d left and left it. Thinking I was having an allergic reaction from some antibiotics, to which the ED doctor referred me onto a consultant dermatologist. The doctor took one look at me and knew what it was without hesitation - Guttate Psoriasis. I was shocked to say the least!

From something that looked as innocent as a heat rash was a long life illness that had no cure - things to help reduce it, but still, no cure. Alarm bells instantly ran through my head because my dad suffered with skin cancer when he was in his 30s, and he also has psoriasis. So I asked the doctor if this would have had any influence on this happening to me and it’s a 50/50 chance. He described Psoriasis as a light switch, all it takes is one thing to kick start it, and Strep A was what did it for me. I had countless appointments, creams& lotions given to try and ease itching and inflammation. I felt like I was living a nightmare. If things couldn’t have gotten any worse, the psoriasis started blistering and scaling and becoming too uncomfortable to even put clothes on to. I had to leave my job for about 3 months as I couldn’t move.

These are only some snippets of photos but on my worst days, I didn’t even want to pick up my phone let alone document it. I now wish I had to show you & myself how far I’ve come.

I was quickly fast tracked to receive courses of light therapy; and this did eventually clear up my skin after about 4-5 months. I still have pigmentation but absolutely nothing on the scale of what it is, I was depressed for the entirety of 2023, this affected my work, my relationship, my friendships. Everything suffered. But suffered for what?

This is me, and this is who I am. I live with psoriasis but psoriasis isn’t me. It’s a condition, it’s not what’s at my core. No one should feel anxious or embarrassed about any condition they have. As the years go by, the world’s becoming more inclusive & accepting. And I hope when I have children one day, the view on skin conditions doesn’t make people go ‘errrr’ I hope it empowers people.

Anyone struggling with this condition or not knowing where to turn - reach out. Don’t hide away ♥️