A mum hid from her own daughter after a Covid side-effect left her feeling "like a monster".
Jaime Graves tested positive for the virus and then suffered an attack of cystic acne but antibiotics refused to respond to it.
The 42-year-old was finally able to leave the house after her mum treated her to an £85 "miracle cure", reported the Manchester Evening News.
Jaime had the condition for about a decade, but in the past has always been able to clear her complexion with prescription medication.
She believed it was initially triggered by hormonal changes in her early 30s.
When the latest breakout struck she hid her skin under mounds of makeup so her daughter Freya, 13, wouldn't see.
But then Jaime's mum Susan, 68, bought her a skincare bundle after doing some research and finally the blemishes started to vanish.
Jamie, who lives in Bedfordshire, said: “My mental health was so low earlier in the year.
“I hated my face to the point where I didn’t want anyone else to see it. I can’t believe I’m now freely leaving the house whenever I want to and I even joined a work video call the other day completely make-up free, which is something I never would have done before.”
Jaime’s first acne attack happened in puberty when she was 13 before eventually clearing.
But in 2012, her skin began to get worse and she was diagnosed with cystic acne, but antibiotics have always kept any outbreaks at bay.
However, in January Jaime came down with Covid which brought on a new attack.
“It was so bad that my skin was red raw and so sore," she said. "I had bumps of cysts across my face. I felt like a monster.”
After testing negative for Covid she was prescribed antibiotics. After a couple of weeks they'd failed to work leaving her feeling "helpless".
She didn't leave her house for five or six weeks due to embarrassment as she experimented with skincare products.
She worked from home and refused to get out of the car on the school run.
Jaime couldn't even face her own daughter without first putting makeup on, with the teenager even asking why.
“I didn’t know what to say. I was just at my lowest point and my skin was drastically affecting my confidence and mental health," she said.
In April, her mum treated her to a skincare bundle which soon did the trick.
Jaime said: "It wasn’t an overnight fix and I have continued taking my antibiotics along with the skincare products, but it gave me the confidence to keep going with it and the results have given me my life back.
“I am now able to go out with minimal make up on. I am also happy not to wear make up in front of my daughter.”
She added: “I’m so much happier and, finally, feel I can get over the trauma of Covid and what it did to my skin. I’m a fun mum again. We do fun things together and I don’t let anything hold me back.
“I still get the odd spot from time to time, but nothing like the cystic acne outbreaks I was getting before. This treatment has really changed my life.”
