I didn’t really know that much. I mean I was sort of eleven, eleven or twelve, or I think I was probablyprobably means I was still in primary school, or just, just coming out of primary school. So, I didn’t really know that much probably because I got it so early that maybe if I’d gotten it later I’d be more aware of stuff like that. And even with my sister with acne and my mum with acne, is I didn’t really know how like, how varied the spots you actually get are, and that they’re painful and sort of what to do about it, and that probably led to the reason why my acne got quite bad before I actually did something about it. And I think it sort of takesyour acne has to be of a certain level, and that you actually go and try and get treatment cos I definitely think even if it’s not that bad and it doesn’t affect you too much, it probably is worth getting at least some, some sort of cream or something like that, and if it gets worse obviously you go further and getmaybe get a referral like I did, something like that.

It started off when I was about sixteen and I started getting like a few spots and then obviously that’s normal for like teenagers, but I think when it got really bad I sort of, I think in denial for a while because you don’t really want to admit like that it’s really serious and it’s not very nice to think about. So, I think I sort of like wore quite a lot of make-up and sort of like just tried not to think about it too much but, and it really annoyed me when my Mum would like point out or like, be like it looks really painful and she’d be like, “Is it painful?” I’d be like “No it’s fine, it’s fine,” like. But, yeah I think so you suddenly realise that it’s actually a problem and then, I felt like as soon as I realised it was a problem it suddenly becamestarted to get worse.

Before you’d been to the doctors for the first time, had you been trying like sort of treatments you’d bought in the shops, or?

Yeah [laugh]. I think there’s generally nothing I haven’t tried. And even just the sort of stuff people put on online. Like homemade treatments and stuff like that, like we used a lot of those. And I think I’ve tried some really odd things. Like we tried like aloe vera juice. Like some, someone online was like, This works really well for skin. So I remember my Mum buying like from a health, a website online just like this jug of aloe vera juice, and it was really grim. But we used to have this like syrup, and did like the typical kind of washing in salt water. Tried toothpaste, which actually burnt my skin really badly. So that was, I would not recommend that. And I tried like Sudocrem, which actually works quite well. And then just a lot of face washes and all those kind of Clearasil like gels and stuff like that, so I think I probably went through most product ranges.

At what stage should a young person to go to the doctors if they are having some spots?

I think there’s lots of things that can be done for acne. The key is to do things before you’ve got scarring. So I don’t think it’s worth waiting and waiting. I mean, there’s lots of things that can be used over the counter quite safely, initially. So there are some quite good, you know, products which are, you know, available without seeing a doctor. But I think if you’re getting ongoing lesions, if you think you’ve got any kind of marks or scarring, you should absolutely go and see your doctor as soon as possible. And, or even if you know that you’re kind of high risk, then it might be worth going to see your doctor, just to sort of get prepared. If you know you’ve had an older brother or sister that’s had very bad acne, or a parent who’s had scarring acne. I don’t think- it’s not something you need to kind of wait until things are really bad, because there are things that can be done.