A dad is looking forward to enjoying his new-found freedom after a procedure at a Glasgow clinic has completely transformed his life.
Former Navy sailor Ian Arthur suffered from a skin condition called rhinophyma, causing an enlarged nose that became red and bumpy. It turned him into a hermit who was too embarrassed to go out in public.
The 63-year-old now feels "reborn" after a successful procedure carried out at Glasgow’s Ever Clinic, in St Vincent Place.
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He said: “The rhinophyma started to develop about 10 years ago, gradually at first, but then more aggressively. It became much worse and much more noticeable until, by two years ago, I started to feel like a freak.
“During covid, I began to withdraw from society and, when it ended, I just couldn’t face meeting people. I wound down my business, because I felt clients were just staring at my nose.
"I even began shopping late in the evening, when there were fewer people about. In my isolation, I called my nose John, after John Merrick in The Elephant Man.
"It was huge carbuncle, which people could not avoid looking at.
“The last time I was out in public was when I rode my motorcycle around Northern Europe, but that was only because I could wear a full-face helmet, and no one could see me. That was bliss.”
Ian, originally from Manchester, went to his GP eight years ago where he was diagnosed with rosacea, a skin condition, and prescribed pills and liquids.
But his nose kept growing. Before covid, he sought treatment again, and this time was given ointments, and a kind of chemical scrub but it didn't help.
He was referred to an NHS dermatology clinic last February and is still waiting for an appointment letter. So he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Ian, a father-of-four, added: "My daughter insisted that I had to do something about the condition and I began looking for solutions. I thought about going to Turkey, on cost grounds, but I thought that with my luck I would probably get a dodgy doctor and my nose would fall off on the way home.
"I was dealt with in a single treatment of two and a half hours (at the Ever Clinic) and, yes, it has changed my life.
“You must understand, I am a basically a working class, Northern lad and I felt very nervous and out of place in a private clinic. But the staff were brilliant and Dr Convery was utterly superb.
"I am so thankful. Now it has gone, a huge weight has been lifted from me."
Ian is planning a series of adventurous global trips on his treasured motor cycle and his helmet visor will no longer be covering his nose.
“I’m just going to follow my nose", he said.
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