“My face would go bright red even if I sneezed or coughed”

Just over a year ago my face started to become very red and inflamed. It got so bad that at one stage it looked like I had burned myself. It went across my cheeks and nose and across my forehead and into my hairline. It felt like my face had been dipped in boiling water.

I went to my doctors and he gave me a medicated facial wash as he thought it was some sort of allergic reaction. The facial wash actually made my skin even redder so I stopped using it. I tried several other creams, including E45 cream so try and sooth my skin, but everything I tried just made my skin even more furious.

I went back to my GP and he told me that I might have developed rosacea and that there was nothing really that could be done about it.

I felt so depressed that one time I actually broke down in tears at work as my skin looked so dreadful and there seemed to be nothing anyone could do about it. Not only did my skin look frightful but it was painful too, it always felt sore and inflamed and it was very itchy. I tried covering it wit make up but it would end up blotchy and the redness would soon start showing and I’d look like a clown.

For a while I was in a cloud of depression about my skin and started cancelling going out with friends and some days, when it was really bad, I found it hard to muster the courage to even leave the house. The redness was so severe people would stare at me. People would ask me if I was OK as my skin looked so sore. My face was going red even when I coughed or sneezed.

My mother and my colleague at work both saw an article in a magazine about a new treatment for rosacea at the same time and both told me about it. I felt it was too much of a coincidence that they has both said the same thing so I looked it up on the internet and ordered some. I was prepared to try just about anything once.

Within 20 minutes of using the Kalme cream on my skin, my skin started to feel calmer and less furious. Within a week my skin was half as red as it had been. Within two weeks my skin was almost back to normal.

That was last summer and I haven’t used anything else since, it has been a blessing.’I now don’t even have to wear make up to work as my skin is so much improved and I am hoping this summer I will actually be able to go to a few summer parties without having to cancel hours before because my face has turned beetroot red.

The KALME medicated rosacea skincare range costs 49.95 and includes a Day Cream SPF25, Nourishing Night Cream, Water-free Cream Cleanser and Medicated Tinted Moisturiser. Available from www.skinshop.co.uk or call: 0844 7009975

* A PDF dossier of all scientific research on patented ingredients and on the sun cream itself are available on request

Guest Blog: With kind thanks to Karen White, 38, from Stourbridge West Midlands