Alyssa Shaw has lived with psoriasis since she was eight and shared her story this Psoriasis Awareness Week
Alyssa Shaw has lived with psoriasis since she was eight years old
A Belfast mum who has lived with psoriasis since childhood says the chronic skin condition doesn’t define or stop her.
Alyssa Shaw, 34 and from the Shankill area, has lived with psoriasis since she was eight years old.
Psoriasis is a chronic immune condition that affects the skin and is also associated with psoriatic arthritis, which affects the joints. It affects 2-3% of the UK population which can be as many as 1.8 million people.
There is currently no cure and it can affect people both physically and psychologically. However, it can be managed and with the right treatment and advice, many people live well with psoriasis.
Sharing her story to mark Psoriasis Awareness Week, Alyssa told Belfast Live: “When I was younger, I had it really badly on my scalp and my elbows, so it was a form of psoriasis called plaque psoriasis, and it actually came out when I drank a lot of Sunny Delight. My grandmother had it so she actually picked up on it.
“Then when I was 15 or 16, I caught glandular fever, and it then turned into a form called guttate psoriasis, where I pretty much looked like I had chickenpox, so I went completely covered in it, and from then until now.
“I was pretty much overprescribed steroid creams till my heart was delighted and did an endless amount of the UVB sunbeds in the hospital.”
Alyssa added: “At the start I would have got a good length of time with clear skin after, and then in April last year, they done it again, but I only got four weeks clear.
“Finally, after years of fighting, I was put on methotrexate in November last year but in recent weeks it’s starting to come back again.
“I’ve always had a little bit on my face that has never went away and on the right side of my ribs that has always been there too, no matter how much sunbeds, steroid creams, I use those two distinct parts have always been there.
“But it’s now started to come back and I get a random itch on my back now or in the back of my leg now, and I’m like, ‘Oh great, psoriasis is back.’
“There are parts of my arms that I never had it in but it’s now coming up again, and I’m like, ‘OK, I don’t like this’, I now realise how much I hated it.”
For the mum-of-one, psoriasis is more than just a skin condition; it affects her confidence, comfort, and daily life. But over the years, Alyssa says she’s learned how much strength it takes to manage the physical and emotional toll it brings.
“I’m big into the gym and part of my job is working in a gym as well, so, I train four days a week and then I run three days a week. It really impacts me especially when I’m in the gym and if I’m wearing a short sleeve t-shirt or if I’m getting changed in the changing room as people are looking at me,” she said.
“I know people probably don’t mean any harm, but it’s just always in your head are they looking at me because of my skin? When I was younger, I got bullied because of it as the skin flakes would have shown on my school jumper and my school blazer from my scal.
“If I see people looking, I’m automatically looking at my shoulder to check if there are flakes on my shoulder and not the fact that I have bright blue hair, tattoos and piercings.
“I do get people asking me, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ and I openly tell them, whereas when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have, I would have been very stand-offish about it, whereas now, I feel like a lot more people have it now so it’s more of an open conversation now.
“It would definitely still affect my confidence, especially being in the gym, I obviously cover up and try not to talk about it unless people do openly ask me about it.
“With my wee boy, it’s a lot because he would be like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ and I’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s just mummy’s skin’. I try to think positive, but then he’s a 4-year-old and you can’t control what they say, so he just says anything and everything.
“He called me a snake the other day because snakes lose their skin so I see the funny side of it because he doesn’t mean any harm and since I’ve had it so long I’m used to it.”
Alyssa is urging others with psoriasis not to be scared of it: “I’ve spent all of my childhood being scared of it and letting it define me, whereas now, the anxiety’s always there from it, but I do get on with things.
“I do still go into the gym, take my wee boy into the swimming pool, go on holiday and wear the shorts and the t-shirt, so I don’t let it stop me. It’s a part of you but it’s not you – there’s so much more to me than just psoriasis.”
Psoriasis UK is the leading national membership organisation for people with psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis in the UK. It aims to provide information, advice and support to those whose lives are affected by psoriasis, raise awareness of the condition and fund research into the causes, nature and care of psoriasis.
The charity has launched a new position paper that aims to set out what ‘rapid access’ to psoriasis care should look like – including illustrative models it is urging local NHS services to follow.
Psoriasis UK Chief Executive Helen McAteer said: “This year’s campaign is particularly exciting, as it follows the release of our recent paper, which sets out what a rapid access model should look like for psoriasis.
“We felt Psoriasis UK had an important role to play in setting out what people with the condition should expect from their care and providing a practical framework for local services to consider how they can deliver it.”
For advice, information and support, visit www.psoriasisuk.org.uk or call its free, confidential helpline on 01604 251620
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