A Co Tyrone woman has warned of a dangerous plant which left her dealing with severe burns for almost a decade.
Giant hogweed has been present around the River Blackwater near Tamnamore for years and has become known as Britain's most dangerous plant due to its toxicity.
Jenny Millar from the Moy was walking in the area nine years ago when she tripped and fell into one of the dangerous plants.
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The next day she started to notice the skin on her arm getting red and itchy before it quickly developed into a severe reaction which left a burn on her skin.
Strangely, the burns would return to her arm every year at the same time, causing blisters on Jenny’s skin.
While the plant itself does not cause harm directly, when the sap comes into contact with our skin, it causes a reaction called phytophotodermatitis, which damages your DNA and changes the way your skin protects itself from UV light.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Jenny said she initially had no idea what was causing the burns.
“I never even thought much about it but the next day it got very itchy and sore” she said.
“I thought it was just because I had fell and I passed no remarks.
“It then just started getting a lot worse and I got these blisters on my skin, that’s when we started to realise what it was.
“That was the start of nine years of hogweed burns.
“I was in the tech at the time studying horticulture and it was the tutor that asked me if I had been near any hogweed.
“I had no idea what it was and once he showed me pictures of it I realised there was a lot of those plants around.
“It just started with itchiness then developed into a really bad sunburn type of thing it starts to blister then and it’s so, so painful.
“For years I tried different steroid creams and they only made it worse, I tried Aloe Vera on it as well and that was just awful.
“It started cracking and bleeding, I would get shooting pains digging into me as well.
“It had actually burned down as far as my nerves, it’s not nice at all.
While Jenny says she has found a new cream that helps her manage the recurring burns she warned others to be aware of what the plant looks like and to take care around it, especially if there are children nearby.
A four-year-old schoolgirl was hospitalised in Bolton this week after breaking out in severe blisters after coming into contact with the hazardous plant.
“I have started to use this new cream and thankfully for the last few years the burns haven’t come back.
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“But even this week I was out in the sun briefly and my arm started to swell up like a balloon.
“It affects people differently, some people will get it and it will be a one off and it’ll never come back.
“But the DNA of the hogweed can actually attach itself to your DNA on your skin so that’s why in my case it kept coming back every year.
“It kept coming back in the same shape and on exactly the same day every year.
“We got my case in front of the UK dermatology review board where every dermatologist in the country looked at it and I was diagnosed with recurrent phytophoto phenomenon.
“What actually had happened was the hogweed cells had attached themselves to my DNA and the skin memory caused it to come back every year at the same time.
“My fear would be a child falling into it, it was hard enough as a grown woman to deal with it let alone a child.”
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