CAP treatment for Topical Steroid Withdrawal

Hi, my name’s Mollie and the pictures you see here are caused by a condition called TSW (topical steroid withdrawal). A horrific condition which leaves people suffering for years as natural recovery can take anywhere from 2-5 years. This is what led me to this point…

I have suffered with mild eczema since I was a child. Throughout my life I only ever used very mild steroid creams prescribed by my doctor, usually going years at a time without ever needing to apply them as my skin condition rarely affected me.

In 2020 I worked as a health care assistant at a hospital, and during this time I began to develop facial eczema due to wearing covid masks for 12 hour shifts. A doctor prescribed a potent steroid - mometasone furoate - and I began using this to control my occasional eczema flare ups on my face, arms, hands and neck.

Even though I didn’t use much of the cream, I started to notice that my eczema was spreading to places it had never been before. I started developing new allergies to things that had never caused problems in the past, and would occasionally experience swelling of my eyes and lips, with no explanation as to why.

It wasn’t until February 2023 that I started experiencing symptoms that I now know are from Topical Steroid Withdrawal. This happens when your body has become addicted to the creams that doctors prescribe. Symptoms include intense skin redness, bone-deep itch, insomnia, nerve pain - the list goes on. The past 9 months have been a struggle not just physically, but mentally too. Along with feeling like acid had been throw on my skin, I am kept awake every night with the sensation of bugs crawling all over my skin due to the nerve damage which will take a long time to heal.

Up until now I have spent thousands of pounds to try and find a cure. Creams, cryotherapy, private dermatologists, allergy testing, kinesiologists, red light therapy, etc. Nothing has been able to get my skin back to normal, and each day is a struggle to cope with the symptoms as even simple tasks like showering is extremely painful.

I am now fortunate enough to have reached the top of the waitlist for a treatment called Cold Atmospheric Plasma. Thousands of people wait months for this treatment, as it has shown such amazing results at helping people with TSW get their life back. I will be travelling to Winchester for 1 hour sessions every week, which cost £160 each, and most people need treatment for 4-6 months.

Any donations at all would be so appreciated! I have just paid for 10 sessions but anticipate that I will need to buy more sessions throughout the next few months and pay for the petrol costs each week to travel to the clinic. Most serious medical conditions have treatments that are funded by the NHS, but most doctors are still refusing to even recognise this condition due to them being a big part of the problem. The more awareness that can be raised - the better!

I really urge anyone currently using steroid creams or oral steroids to research Topical Steroid Withdrawal/Red Skin Syndrome and see for themselves what damage these powerful medications can do to our bodies, even after a short period of time. I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to suffer, and I wish I had been warned about this years ago.

My hope is that this treatment will speed up my recovery from this horrific condition which could have been prevented, if doctors acknowledged the dangers of steroid creams, and I can finally get back to living my normal life, pain free!

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.