A lorry driver has aged dramatically more quickly on one side of his face than the other. Steve, aged 54, said he has had to have treatment to try to tackle the deep lines and crevasses cause by damage done to his skin on the side which is in the sun when he drives.
It is a stark example of the damage sun does to the skin - and a salutary lesson for people in the hunt for a deep tan. On Steve’s left side the skin is far smoother and he could pass for 10 years younger.
The driver, who doesn’t wish to disclose his surname, noticed that the skin on his face would sag and hang, but he put it down to ageing and thought it was something he’d have to live with. Then one day he looked in the mirror and realised the other side of his face looked quite youthful, and then it struck him - the sun, coming through the right side of his cabin, had withered the right side of his face, the Mirror reported.
Steve, from South Yorkshire, who has been a lorry driver for 30 years, said: “For the last four or five years I was noticing deep lines and wrinkles on the right side of my face. I used to look in the mirror and pull the skin around my eye back and think to myself, ‘I’m getting old’.
“To be honest, I thought it was part and parcel of ageing and I never thought about having any treatments, until I remembered a newspaper picture and story featuring a UV photo of a lorry driver’s face showing the really bad sun damage just on his right side – the driver’s window side.
“That’s when it clicked with me... My lines and wrinkles were also likely caused by sun damage. I can honestly say that even that didn’t prompt me to stock up on sun cream, I just thought I’d have to live with it.” One day, Steve spoke to Dr Hannah Higgins, aesthetic doctor and clinical director of The Wellness Space in Barnsley.
He continued: “When I jokingly asked her if there was anything she could do to help me, she said she could. I told her about the newspaper article I’d read and wondered if it could be sun damage and after a consultation when she examined my face, she agreed.
“She told me the sun had not only damaged the surface of my skin, but the deeper layers too, which had caused the right side of my face to sink a little bit. She also said I had a skin condition called rosacea, which was making my face a bit red.
“She gave me a really good talking to, told me if she was going to treat me I’d have to start using factor 50 sun cream every day and explained how important it was to start a protective skincare regime and to use sunscreen before she could treat me to correct my lines and wrinkles.
“Hannah gave me a medical-grade skincare regime to carry out for three months, to repair my skin, plus reduce the redness and inflammation the sun damage had caused.” A dermal filler treatment using MaiLi filler was used to smoothen out the deep wrinkles.
Steve explained: “After the filler treatment, I noticed a difference straight away. It was really amazing and made me realise that I hadn’t seen how bad it was before.”
Dr Higgins added: “IThe asymmetry caused by the sun damage to Steve’s face was more marked than anything I’d previously seen.
“His entire face showed signs of UV damage; there was redness, erythema (reddening), age spots and pigmentation, plus more oil resting on the surface of the skin than I’d normally expect.
“The treatments successfully addressed the asymmetry of Steve’s face. The redness is gone, and his skin now looks healthier, and his lines and wrinkles are significantly decreased.”
