Hi everyone, my name's Austin and I'd like to raise money to help the love of my life get the treatment she desperately needs to recover from Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW) — a condition that has taken too much of her life away.

LUCA'S STORY

Luca has been battling this horrific condition for years now… too many. When we first moved in together during COVID, she’d regularly lather on cream from those small steroid tubes — the kind casually handed out by GPs for eczema flare-ups — sometimes going through multiple in a week. I didn’t think much of it since she told me she had eczema.

Over time, I noticed how often she used it: After dance training, while chilling at home, even half-asleep. It became second nature to her, like brushing her teeth...

But her skin kept getting worse. We thought it might be diet-related, so we made changes. Nothing worked.

Then came New Year’s 2024. We were on a trip up north when her skin completely flared, nothing like ever before. Red, raw, and burning. She was in agony, itching constantly, unable to rest.

Back home, we were terrified and clueless about what was happening.

This was just before the trip.

And this was the day after returning.

She began spiralling fast.... mentally, emotionally, physically. I’ve never felt so helpless. I nearly quit my job to care for her. Fortunately, we had our friends and family bring us out of isolation, but for the first time since 2021, we had to live apart — and it broke my heart.

We just knew this wasn’t eczema. Eczema doesn’t do this.

TOPICAL STEROID WITHDRAWAL

After endless nights of searching for answers, we came across Topical Steroid Withdrawal. And suddenly, everything made sense.

In a nutshell, TSW is a severe reaction that can happen when someone stops using steroid creams after long-term use. These are irresponsibly prescribed for eczema, but in time, the skin becomes dependent. When they’re stopped, the body goes into a withdrawal state, kind of like an addict coming off a drug. Consequently, the skin flares in extreme ways such as having red skin, a constant burning sensation, intense itching, flaking, oozing, etc.

It’s not just painful. It’s debilitating.

It affects everything from sleep, mental health, and the ability to live a normal life. Frustratingly, many doctors still don’t recognise it, and Luca has been misdiagnosed, mistreated, and repeatedly dismissed by the NHS. She’s suffered multiple, severe infections and frequently hospitalised.

WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP

After months of research and recommendations, we've found Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) therapy.

It’s an an innovative and non-invasive medical treatment thankfully available in the UK that helps reduce inflammation, promote healing, and eliminate infections by stimulating the skin cells to produce growth factors at an accelerated rate, which promote repair and regeneration.

Traditional treatments that Luca has been offered provide limited relief and often come with side effects. That’s why CAP therapy feels like a promising alternative to us as it addresses the root causes of skin damage without using drugs or steroids.

We’ve seen many TSW warriors undergo this procedure and experience amazing results. Unfortunately, this is not available on the NHS. Each session in Birmingham costs £200+ at a private clinic and she’ll need multiple sessions to see results.

We’ve had enough of being failed by the system. I believe it’s time to try something different — something that could genuinely help her heal, alongside the changes we’re already making to improve her gut and immune system through diet, and hopefully, support her in undergoing therapy for PTSD after enduring this jarring condition.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. From the bottom of my heart.

If you can contribute anything, you’ll be part of helping this genuine, kind, loving, talented, smart, funny, witty, beautiful, pure soul get her life back.

If you could please share this fundraiser too, your support means the world to us.

With love,

Austin