At first Olivia thought nothing of the small mark on her neck.
She was used to getting keloids, growths that come from the production of too much collagen in your body. But as time went on, the mark morphed into a massive lump.
After four years of continuous growth, it began to interfere with her life. The 28-year-old was almost banned from a flight after the swelling caused alarm on board a plane. An NHS nurse, she was unable to protect herself with a mask during Covid, because of the material scratching against her skin. Instead, she was forced to wear an ill-fitting and uncomfortable protective suit.
“It was very hypersensitive,” she told The Independent. “If anything even touched my face, it felt like pins and needles.” She would be faced with rude questions like, “What’s that thing on your face?”
People would speak to her growth rather than make eye contact, and to make matters worse, the visual effects were compounded by “a skin-crawling itch” that she says felt like “torture”. She was unable to ever feel comfortable, with the slightest touch to the growth, by clothes or seat belts for instance, causing an insufferable irritation.
After trying steroid injection treatment on the NHS, and facing lengthy waiting lists, she came across The Bad Skin Clinic. Having run for seven series, the Discovery+ show follows people with serious skin conditions through treatment and recovery.
Dr Emma Craythorne, the show’s consultant dermatologist, told The Independent, “Some of my patients haven’t ever got a job, haven’t ever been in a relationship, haven’t progressed with normal stages [of life] because of something that’s cosmetic on their skin.”
Olivia met Dr Craythorne, who works at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital as well as running her own private practice, and was able to have the lump removed on the same day. The nurse and full-time carer admits she was “sh*tting” herself ahead of the operation.
Weeks after the surgery, she told The Independent, that the results have been life-changing.
“I feel like my head’s clearer,” she said. “I can think. I feel like I’m doing things quicker at work. I’m sharper because I don’t have this burden. It’s helped me a lot more than just the looks. It’s supported me to be a better person.”
Dr Craythorne says that stories like Olivia’s can inspire others to have the confidence to be open about their journeys.
“I have had lots of patients who have hidden these conditions for a long time,” she said. “And because someone like Olivia is actually on the TV talking about it then that very act gives other people confidence and strength to talk about it, normalise it, or even just spread the word like this is not contagious. It’s a real educational point.”
The Bad Skin Clinic is available to stream on Discovery+.
