Mum of two Megan, 24, is a planning officer from Lanarkshire in Scotland.

“I’ve had eczema since I was a baby, in all my baby photos you can see is very clearly. It runs in my family too so I’m guessing I inherited it.

Growing up I was picked on in school by other kids thinking I had a “disease”. I received many hurtful comments and once someone made a comment everyone else joined in. It was relentless.

As an adult many people have given me unsolicited advice or told me to put moisturiser on which as someone who has suffered from eczema for 24 years… is upsetting and annoying because it’s like people assume I’m just kind of not noticing my awful skin, when obviously I’ve tried literally everything and am aware of my skin 24/7.

I think I’ve tried just about every cream the doctor is able to prescribe including zerobase, cetraben, dermal, double base, hydrocortisone, fuciden and betnovate. Steroids work, however as soon as you stop using them, which you have to after a certain period of time, your skin goes back to how it was before. They can’t be used long term or during pregnancy.

My eczema got a bit better in my later teens but then when I got pregnant with my first child it came back with a vengeance.

During my first pregnancy I had the wore flare up I’ve ever had it appeared all over my face, neck, sides, arms, hands and even under my fingernails were red, raw, cracked and bleeding and it also appeared on my lips which had never happened before.

After having my daughter, I was prescribed steroids again by my doctor to try and control the multiple eczema flare ups I was having. Despite the steroid creams the eczema flares were getting worse and worse and more frequent.

In desperation and on someone’s advice I also tried sunbeds around three years ago to help with my eczema but as a pale, blonde Scottish girl, it did more harm than good.

There were so many days when I didn’t want to go out of the house when my eczema was bad out of fear of people staring at me. If I did have to go out, I kept as much of my body covered as I could even when the weather was really warm.

 I first tried Hydrosil Turmeric Butter & Milk Salve earlier this year after reading about it on a review online when I was researching alternatives to steroid creams for eczema because I realised that I could not keep using them as much as I was. I was sacred they were permanently damaging my skin. The salve contained donkey milk, which on further research, I found a lot of information on in regard to it being excellent for treating eczema.

I noticed straight away when I first applied the salve that unlike other creams it didn’t sting, which I was really shocked about considering the number of creams I’ve tried in the past and had this issue with all of them.

After a few days of using the salve the redness and itching calmed down a lot and my skin felt less raw and sore.

After about a week my skin was much smoother and calmer. It took around two weeks to notice the deeper cracks in my skin starting to heal.

To be honest, the salve worked as well and as quickly as steroid creams but without any of the negative side effects, which for me was like a miracle. I was also able to use the salve every day indefinitely. I checked and double checked on the website and even rang the company up who makes it, and everything assured me that there is no limit on the time I could can use the salve, so I have literally been using it every day for the last five months  and I’ve not looked back.

 I was really sceptical at first as everything I’ve tried previously targeted at eczema has let me down but I’m really glad I did my research and decided to give this a go, it’s made a massive difference and has become one of the most important steps in my eczema management routine.

I’ve even managed to go swimming with my kids for the first time, something I’ve never done before with them as it meant having a lot of my body on show in public.

Even day to day things like doing the dishes or cleaning I no longer dread doing or put off until last minute as it’s no longer unbearably painful, I just get on with it and apply the salve straight away. It’s honestly been life-changing for me.”