A young boy who has suffered all his life with severe eczema has finally found an effective solution right on his doorstep after years of wearing bandages from the neck down to protect his skin. Jack's Ayles' mother Stacey, 31 first noticed the skin condition when he was three months old and the now 10-year-old is finally free from his exhausting symptoms for the first time ever.
Stacey, who lives in Etchingham, East Sussex with her three kids and husband, said when her son's eczema was at its worst, people would stare and comment on his skin as he would sometimes scratch himself so hard that he would bleed. Recalling how it first came about, she said: "It appeared almost overnight. His skin went from baby soft to dry and rough.
"His dad and grandad suffered from eczema, so it runs in the family but Jack’s condition was far worse. He had it from head to toe and was constantly scratching himself.
The dairy farmer continued: “He had it from head to toe and was constantly scratching himself. He’s very easy going and cheerful, but the eczema made him unhappy.
“Our GP’s first thought was that it was diet-related, but taking him off dairy milk and substituting goat and soya milk didn’t help.”
The mum recalled how on one particular day when Jack was a baby he had cried round the shops in the trolley because his skin was so itchy. At the time he had slipped his mittens off and scratched his itchy forehead which had left blood all over his face.
Stacey said she was left 'distraught' after a woman in the supermarket asked her 'how can you bring your baby out looking like that?' A short while later Jack was prescribed hydrocortisone cream to little effect and was eventually referred to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital where he stayed for 10 days of treatment.
Stacey said: "The team at GOSH were amazing. But the treatment was impractical. He had to be bathed three times daily in steroid wash before a strong steroid cream was left on his skin for 30 minutes, then a thick emollient added and his whole body wrapped in bandages.
"It took three hours and he looked like an Egyptian mummy.” The steroids thinned Jack's skin and the regime did not improve much so Stacey eventually made the decision to stop it.
After exhausting the NHS' offerings, she began scouring the internet and was desperately trying products from around the globe to give her son some relief. Little did she know, that a life changing solution for little Jack was practically on the family's doorstep.
Stacey explained: "Jack’s dad is chairman of Crawley Wasps FC and his sister Heidi plays for the youth team. Last June we were putting food out for an event and Julia Vearncombe, co-founder of Skin:Genius, one of the team’s sponsors, was there.
“She noticed it was a bad eczema day for Jack and told us her company was launching a new product called Cream Come True. She sent over a tub to try and within 20 minutes Jack’s ankles, which had been red raw, felt less dry and the redness was reduced.
“After that we started using it across his whole body, up to four times a day. The cream just sinks in, which is such a relief after all the sticky, greasy products we’ve tried and he can get dressed straight away.
“Over a couple of weeks his skin lost its brittle feel, becoming soft and supple and the eczema cleared. The way it soothes and heals Jack’s skin is simply brilliant.”
When the weather and humidity changes, Jack's skin occasionally still flares up but the cream has helped him relieve the itchiness each time. Stacey said: "His eczema may always be a part of him but now if it comes back we know how to deal with it – before, we had nothing that seemed to help. It’s been amazing.”
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