The mum of a teenager living with crippling eczema is desperately trying to find a cure for his skin condition.
Barney, 14, has asked to be placed in an ‘induced coma’ to avoid dealing with his dry, cracked skin, which makes his body constantly feel as though it’s on fire.
Eczema is red, flaky and itchy skin, which will often crack and weep. The most common type of eczema is caused by allergies (atopic), but people may suffer from contact eczema (flare-ups after touching allergens such as nickel or rubber), discoid (which occurs in coin-shaped patches), or seborrheic (eczema of the scalp).
Although you may be genetically predisposed to eczema, it can only be set off by a trigger, which could be anything from nuts to dog hair, wool to cigarette smoke.
Barney’s case of the condition makes his skin so itchy that he often scratches himself raw, until he is covered in blood.
Barney’s mum, Miranda Rae has told Metro of her dilemma, saying she wants to help her son to regain control of his life.
The teen is due to start Year 10 this month, but finds it excruciating to wear a school uniform.
Miranda, from Bristol, has attempted to bandage Barney’s body while he is sleeping, to no avail. She said he had one day come into her room bleeding from head to toe, shaking, saying he couldn’t believe what he had done to himself.
The pain was “constant”, Miranda said, and Barney was frequently covered with cuts and puss.
While Barney had suffered from the skin condition since he was four years old, it was only last year that his condition began to deteriorate.
Now, wearing clothes hurt, while water and sweat touching his skin caused the boy excruciating pain.
Miranda adds: ‘The worst thing was when he said he wanted to be in an induced coma because the pain was so bad”.
‘It’s heartbreaking to see him go through this. I would do anything to fix this.’
Doctors have not yet managed to find an effective treatment for Barney’s condition, despite the family having tried dozens of different creams and medication over the past year.
But Miranda said they were in a “horrible position” where nothing was working. The eczema had now spread to the teen’s face, and Miranda said the situation really got to him.
The steroid Barney was currently on, Prednisolone, had strong side effects such as weight gain, which meant it was not sustainable as a long-term fix. It had helped the eczema on his face, but his mum said he is reliant on the drug, which has not fixed bad rashes on his neck.
He is also taking a £24,000-a-year drug called Dupilumab, which is prescribed by the NHS, but it’s yet to prove effective.
Desperate for a fix, Miranda is now fundraising £20,000 for private treatment, to properly diagnose Barney’s condition and find him a cure.
