Student’s eczema sealed her eyes and mouth shut and turned her into a recluse but ‘miracle’ cure gave her new confidence

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.

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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

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.

“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.

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.

“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.

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.”