A toddler who was diagnosed with chicken pox ended up with the 'worst case' of a chronic skin condition after being rushed to hospital. Little Mabel Gilmore developed a red rash all over her body and had to visit Alder Hey Children's Hospital three times a week while her condition was at its worst.
Mabel suffered her first flare up just days before her first birthday, when she was diagnosed with chicken pox. But the rash got worse while Mabel began to suffer a high temperature, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Following a series of tests, Mabel was found to be suffering from a chronic condition which affects around one in 50 people, according to the NHS. Mum Jacqueline Smith, 39, said: "She caught Covid and this is when it all started.
"She was really unwell with that, then a couple of days before her birthday she had broken out with what looked like chicken pox. She was actually diagnosed with chicken pox but it's since turned out it wasn't that."
Once at Alder Hey, Mabel had to undergo a variety of different tests to determine what the cause of the rash was, followed by a skin biopsy in October last year. The results confirmed Mabel had psoriasis - a chronic skin condition that causes flaky patches of skin which form scales.
According to the NHS, the severity of the condition varies greatly from person to person. In Mabel's case, Jacqueline said it was the worst psoriasis her consultant had ever seen.
She said: "It's so unpredictable, she can flare [up] any time. It can come up so fast as well. At the worst point we were in Alder Hey three times a week for her to be bandaged.
"They put steroid cream on and bandages on her to try and sooth her body. It normally presents on the backs of her legs and arms and it can affect her face as well. It comes up in dry patches and it can look like burns."
Jacqueline and her partner Ian Gilmore, 42, who both work for the NHS as a registered pharmacy technician and a clinical pharmacist, have shared Mabel's story to mark the start of Psoriasis Awareness Month. According to the Psoriasis Association, while some people who are diagnosed with psoriasis have a family history of the condition, others don't.
A flare-up of psoriasis can be triggered by different factors such as stress or anxiety, injury to skin, hormonal changes, or certain infections or medications. Jacqueline said Mabel, who turns two later this month, has been in and out of hospital over the last year receiving a range of different treatments and she is now receiving immunosuppressant medication.
Jacqueline, from Liverpool, said: "It's been awful for us, going from not knowing what it was thinking it could be anything, constantly in and out of Alder Hey. She looks like she's been burnt when she's having a bad flare up and obviously you don't want your children to be on immunosuppressant medication, she's not even two yet.
"At the moment now she's on this medication, her skin does seem to be calm but obviously they have to do blood tests every week to make sure it's not having adverse affects on her kidneys or liver. The dermatology team at Alder Hey have been absolutely fabulous. I can't fault Alder Hey at all."
Despite everything she's been through, Jacqueline said Mabel is 'always happy and smiling'. She said: "Nothing gets her down. She's so good, always happy, always smiling. She's such a good girl, she's very brave."
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