Sophie Cooper, 21, from Canterbury, has suffered with eczema since she was a chil (Image: SWNS)
A woman was left with sore, bleeding skin across most of her body after three prescriptions of steroid cream to treat her eczema. Sophie Cooper, 21, from Canterbury, Kent, has suffered with the chronic skin condition since she was a child.
When it grew worse in 2023 she sought help from her GP who prescribed steroid creams. Three 10-week long courses of the cream, which grew progressively stronger, did nothing to clear the itchy skin on her arms so she stopped. But that was when she began to suffer from Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW) – an often misunderstood reaction to ending the use of steroid cream.
Sophie said: “The itching is so intense. People say, ‘just don’t itch’, but it’s bone deep, like you want to claw your skin off to get right down to your bone.”
On sick leave from her job in sales, Sophie said she wasn’t aware there was a risk of withdrawal from steroids until she read the small-print on the boxes, but by then it was too late.
Within weeks red, sore and “oozing” patches had spread across her face and body. Despite being off the creams for 18 months, her condition is so debilitating she can’t work and says showering feels like an “acid bath”.
She is often left sobbing, and after months of hiding her flaky, bloody skin from friends and family she has started to share her videos on TikTok, where she has around 9,000 supporters.
A recent paper by skin experts revealed the problem is widely discussed on social media and “#TSW” has over 1.1 billion views on the platform.
In a recent survey, UK dermatology clinicians revealed only 34% believe TSW is a distinct condition, leaving sufferers like Sophie frustrated and unheard.
Sophie says it feels like acid being poured on her when she has a shower (Image: SWNS)
Describing what it is like to live with her ordeal, Sophie said: “I have to change my bedsheets every morning and hoover the bed and the floor from all the skin that comes off in my sleep.
“I have blood on the sheets every day. Showers are like acid being poured on me, or getting sunburn with a thousand paper cuts on you at the same time.”
She recalled going out for a burger with her boyfriend, but being unable to eat it because moving her jaw to bite it opened up sores on her face that started to weep.
Sophie added: “When it oozes, I can’t sleep lying down at night because it makes my face ooze and crust all over. I have to sleep sitting up.”
The youngster said she first became concerned what was happening to her might be TSW in November last year.
She is now on a waiting list for ultraviolet light therapy (UVB), which the NHS says can reduce inflammations, and injections which might help.
“Now it pretty much covers all of me – bar my feet. I suffer with insomnia, nerve pain, I struggle with temperature regulation as well as bleeding and oozing. It is hell on earth,” she said.
Some people even mistake her for a burns victim while others approach her in the street asking if she is okay.
Hospitalised in April after developing cellulitis from an open sore on her body, she was left “screaming in pain” when a doctor used an alcohol wipe on her arm before injecting her.
Sophie said she begged to be put in an induced coma while delirious just so she could stop feeling the pain, the itching and to let her body recover – but medics refused.
She spoke out in a bid to raise awareness of the dangers steroids can present, claiming she had no idea and wasn’t warned of the risks.
After three years, she is still waiting for a patch test on the NHS – but says now her TWS has spread to her back she suspects they will refuse to do the skin test.
Despite the difficulties her skin causes, she was recently confirmed as a finalist in the Miss Great Britain Kent contest. She added: “I’m not letting my skin stop me.”
