A little boy's eczema has got so severe that his skin is left "red raw" and he ends up covered in blood. Until last September, Theo Mills, five, had no health issues.
But when his eyelid became puffy his parents Jon and Cecilia thought it could be an allergy such as hayfever. The rash, however, soon spread to other part of Theo's body and it became obvious it was eczema.
Just a few months later, around Christmas, the couple, from Collier Wood in London, had to move Theo into their bed at night so they could hold down his arms and legs while he slept, because he was scratching himself so much that he and his bed would end up covered in blood.
Countless appointments with the NHS, private doctors and dermatologists later, the family is still without a cure.
Architect, Jon, 33, told the Mirror: "We started off by putting gloves on him so that if he did scratch he wouldn’t cut himself with his nails but we realised after a month he was still rubbing at his skin so hard that he was giving himself friction burns. He was scratching all night to the point where he was red raw.
"We brought him into our bed and we would hold his hands. Then he started using his lower limbs to scratch by bringing up his feet and scratching at his belly or using his chin to scratch at his neck and chest.
"We have seen so many doctors and we still don’t know why he has just developed eczema like this all of a sudden or even what we can do to help him. We change our bed sheets everyday because they are covered in blood and plasma after one night, we change his pyjamas every few hours through the night.
"Every morning we strip our bed and wash the sheets at 60 degrees. Some nights we have to change his pyjamas three times a night. He’s in a lot of pain, he will wake up in the nights and cry when we stop him from scratching.
"We have already had to have a conversation with our neighbours and warn them that we are not beating up our child because it sounds awful what is happening at night. It’s devastating."
After visiting the GP, Jon says they were initially recommended mild steroid cream to solve the problem, but Theo's eczema just continued to worsen. Told there was a six-month waiting list to see a dermatologist on the NHS, the family decided to go private.
But Jon says they were left "disappointed" when their advice was just to keep increasing the strength of steroid creams, which were clearly not working.
He added: "We were basically having to sign a waiver saying that the creams were so strong he was at risk of developing skin cancer or thinning of the skin so we weren’t prepared to do that."
Forced to research other treatments, the couple discovered a clinic in France which has had success treating severe eczema using holistic methods. After launching a GoFundMe to take Theo to the Avene Hydrotherapy Centre in the south of France, the family have been given some initial hope.
But after several weeks, they have realised Theo will need to keep returning for the costly and intensive treatments to keep up the improvements in his skin. With Theo's first year of school looming in September, the family are desperate to put an end to his misery and ensure he has a happy start to his school life.
Jon said: " There’s not going to be a miracle cure, but I think this place is as close as it gets. We've seen some improvements but we've realised we are going to need to keep coming back in order to keep it up.
"We live near a park and when Theo was at his worst some parents were actually pulling their kids away almost as if he was a leper. We are worried about when he starts school and how he might get picked on. All we want is for him to go to school and have a normal life."
