When you're out having fun in the summer it can be easy to forget to put on suncream. But one woman learnt the hard way just how important it is to take adequate protection when the temperatures start to rise.
Football coach Laura Day, 24, suffered from 'sun poisoning' - an extreme form of sunburn - after watching a match 'in the sun all day' without adequate protection. At first, she just thought she'd caught the sun, but it was much worse, the Mirror reports.
"I went to watch some of the girls I coach in their cup final and we went to a beer garden afterward to celebrate the girls getting to the final and doing really well. So I was basically in the sun all day," Laura, from Manchester, said.
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"I then went home and just thought I'd caught the sun as I normally burn quite easily. Later on the Saturday night I was with my friends and my face was really warm, and felt like it was burning.
"I woke up on the Sunday and was a little burnt, I then went to watch the girls I coach play for their Sunday league team in the morning, and then went to watch another game in the afternoon.
"I got home and again I thought I'd caught the sun but I didn't really think much of it other than having sunburn which is normal for me, but as the night progressed, my forehead started to swell really bad.
"My friends were joking that I looked like the character Megamind but none of us expected what was to happen the following day."
When Laura woke up on Monday morning, she was horrified that her face had drastically swollen even further, and her left eyebrow and eyelid has swollen - so she finally made the decision to go to the hospital, where her swelling continued to get worse.
She continued: "When I was eventually seen after two or three hours, the doctors hadn't seen anything like it, with the doctor googling my symptoms on his computer.
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"He said to use moisturiser and antihistamines, and drink plenty of water, which I already had done. It was really frustrating as I knew that the swelling wasn't going to go down and after the doctor googling what was wrong, and I'd googled my symptoms anyway, but they sent me away."
Terrifyingly, her symptoms took another turn for the worse, leaving Laura unable to open her left eye. After speaking to her uncle, who is a consultant, he urged her to go to A&E.
"I went to the hospital and after having my bloods taken I waited for four and a half hours to be seen. But the more I waited, the more both eyes were closing.
"I was then sent through to see someone and because it is a rare reaction, the one doctor I did see didn't really know what to do. Another doctor came to see me and he knew what was wrong."
Lauren was diagnosed with sun poisoning, an extreme case of sunburn that inflames the skin. She had no idea that anyone could have such a severe reaction to the sun.
"I was then given a course of eight steroids and one antihistamine to take over five days. When I got discharged I spoke to my friends and they said I didn't look like me and that it was really weird as they had never heard of it either. This was on Tuesday, and by Friday night around 7pm I looked like me again."
"The advice I would give others is to always wear sun cream and make sure you are taking the right precautions in the sun", Laura said. "This has never happened to me before and just like an allergic reaction, it can happen at any time, even if you think you won't get it or are safe."
If you think you have sun poisoning, also known as polymorphic light eruption, which is a skin rash triggered by exposure to sunlight or artificial ultraviolet (UV) light, you should contact your GP.
