Mum of two Anna, 44, is a project manager for the NHS from Gloucestershire
Anna says:
‘Christmas day three years ago turned into a nightmare when a few red spots on my cheeks suddenly turned in a red-hot furnace on my skin.
I was helping my husband cook the Christmas lunch and having some wine, and the heat from the cooking plus the wine made my skin suddenly erupt. I didn't know then that this combination had been one of the classic rosacea triggeres which had kicked off my first rosacea flare.
It felt like my skin went crazy. I rushed upstairs to try and splash some cold water on it but that just made it worse.
I thought it was just some kind of reaction to something I had eaten or drunk or some kind of cooking spice I had maybe rubbed into my skin accidentally.
But the bumpy redness remained for the rest of the Christmas holiday.
I buried my head in the sand for a while after Christmas to see if my skin cleared up on its own as I was still convinced it was some kind of reaction maybe to a new perfume I’d had as a Christmas gift.
But by April it still hadn’t gone down and I had begun to feel really upset having so many spots at my age.
In the end when I realised it was not going to go away, I went to see my doctor. My GP diagnosed me with rosacea and recommended an antibiotic cream that I'd need to use for eight weeks but said there was a good chance it would come back once I stopped using it as rosacea was a chronic condition that didn’t go away and usually got worse with age. I left the appointment feeling really dismal.
I’d decided on leaving the doctor’s that I wasn’t going to use the antibiotic cream as I couldn’t face the idea of the spots and redness coming back worse than it was as soon as I finished the cream, what was the point?
I didn’t want a quick fix and I knew there was no one-stop rosacea cure. I wanted a long-term solution. I didn’t want to keep living in fear of my skin erupting at any moment.
After seeing how much I was suffering my husband started researching 'natrual rosacea treatment' online and that is when he came across an article from someone who'd tried a rosacea product range called Kalme and it had massively helped her rosacea.
He showed it to me, and we checked it wasn’t medicated or had a time limit on how often you could use it. We also read through some other reviews on the Kalme products and there seemed to be a lot of women about my age who had gone through more or less the same symptoms as me and who had also decided to give up on the medical route and look for an alternative and loads of them had said Kalme had come to the rescue.
My husband encouraged me to give the Kalme products a go.
The improvement with Kalme was not immediate but then it said on the information that it was not designed as a quick fix, but a rosacea management programme aimed at reducing the frequency and intensity of flare ups, which seemed to me a responsible approach.
As promised, I noticed a gradual improvement in my rosacea over about a three-month period. During this time there was a very clear improvement in my skin - the spots had gone and the redness was only very subtle, rather than the furious redness I'd previously had and my skin was generally much less reactive and felt more comfortable and less tight and sore.
Since using Kalme my skin has stayed more or less clear for two years. I know the rosacea is always there, but it feels like the Kalme products keep it under control.
I still have the odd flare up where my cheeks and nose go red for about half an hour, but the spots, bumpiness and constant livid redness has thankfully never returned and I know I have Kalme to thank for that. Hopefully this Christmas isn’t going to be ruined by my crazy skin.”
