'Now I can do anything' - Kilkenny woman who never learned to swim because of condition

In light of World Psoriasis day on October 29, a women from Kilkenny has shared her life-long experience living with an incurable skin disorder she was diagnosed with at the age of nine.

According to the Irish Skin Foundation, psoriasis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory skin disorder that affects at least 73,000 people in Ireland.

Caroline Irwin, from Ballyfoyle, struggled on a daily basis with the skin disease and missed out on a lot of parts of life because of psoriasis, like learning to swim.

"I got psoriasis at the age of nine. I broke out quite badly on my scalp and then it spread like wildfire.

"I had gut psoriasis or plaque psoriasis, which led me to have rusty scales all over my body, and it grew and my skin spread all over me," she said.

Caroline was told that she had a skin problem but it was ignored for around 20 years at the time until it started to get so bad that she ended up in hospital.

"I got very bad and I ended up in hospital three times in my life. I had sunlight treatment to try to clear it in the hospital and it cleared but came back again a couple of weeks later.

"I just had a very aggressive type. A lot of people who just get it on their elbows and knees and when they're stressed and it could go away but mine never did," she added.

"I lived in Holland for seven years and I ended up in hospital twice there for six and eight weeks at a go and then when I moved back in the 90s to Kilkenny, there was not near as much treatments or treatment centres."

Caroline also went on to develop type 2 diabetes and got psoriatic arthritis at 19 years old.

Caroline explained that the lack of support in Kilkenny led her to become very depressed, but also led her to form her own support group for people with psoriasis in Kilkenny, and she says that really helped her a lot.

She started the support group in Kilkenny 25 years ago and it started off with six people in the Newpark Hotel and grew to 900 or 1,000 people.

"But by then, it was getting too big for me to manage, and the Irish Skin Foundation formed in Dublin, and they asked us to join them as an umbrella group.

"I learned a lot about myself from this. I eventually got a good dermatologist in Waterford and there was new treatments coming on for people that have psoriasis. They're called Biologics, there's different brands, it's an injection, a thick pen. My God, the difference it made in my life, I can't tell you."

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Caroline, since getting the treatment, has been able to do things she never thought she would be able to do.

"I got my ears pierced at 60 years old; I bought swimming togs and I go paddling in the children's section now; I could never wear a dark jacket because the flakes would be all over your shoulders. Even wearing white clothes because basically psoriasis is your skin growing every four days, whereas a normal person's skin would come every month.

"And if you scratched it, the blood vessels are near the top and it would bleed. So like if you wore a white blouse, you'd look like someone shot you with a pellet gun, you know. But yeah, it's horrendous.

"I don't know what triggered mine at nine but my brother broke out with it in his 20s, that's the usual age at college or, you know, exam times, and then my mother at 74 broke out in it. She was a gene carrier all along and now about four
of my nephews have it, my two brothers had it. It's gone into the next generation, but it can skip a generation."

Caroline said that growing up she would just cover up her skin when in public and it really affected her psychologically.

"I never learned to swim, I never tried on clothes in a shop. I just covered it up or wore long sleeves all the time, trousers. I just sort of ignored it because I was married at 20 and the next thing I had a few kids. I knew my husband at 15 or 16 and he knew me having it already.

Caroline's support group was invited to an awards ceremony and she said that the PR girl rang her and she asked her what she was going to wear and she said a cocktail dress.

"I said, a cocktail dress? I don't even own a dress! Never mind a cocktail dress. You know, I always wore trousers and long sleeves."

She went on to say: "I feel for kids nowadays, teenagers, the way they're wearing belly tops and skirts up to their backsides, you know, it's difficult because I sort of ignored it, it was just part of me that I can't remember a time not having it. But it's devastating psychologically, you know, for people.

"I've had calls from people that the girls gave up college, went to bed and wouldn't come out, and the big problem now is the waiting list to see a dermatologist. It could be up to two years if you're going publicly."

Caroline explained that after taking the medication for 20 years, she is now completely clear and wakes up in the morning unable to believe that she's looking at her own arms.

"I'm completely clear, I don't have any psoriasis on me but if I stopped taking it, it would break out very quickly.

"I have clear legs, I can buy shorts in the summer...it's just life changing."

For more information on psoriasis visit: Psoriasis - Irish Skin Foundation