Jancis Kinsman

 ‘I got my first psoriasis symptoms at age one and thought I'd always have it. I was 49 before I found Soratinex - and I've been clear for months.’

Jancis Kinsman, 49, a radiographer from Bristol

My mother told me I was one year old when I developed my first symptoms of psoriasis on my scalp and arms. I can’t remember the early years, but Mum tells me I was six or seven years old when it got a lot worse and I was diagnosed with psoriasis.

Over the years I have had symptoms on my scalp, my face – in my hairline, eyebrows and under the eyes – arms, legs and torso. I only ever knew life with psoriasis and until I discovered Soratinex, I thought I would always have to live with it.

I tried not to let it get me down through a combination of resilience and sheer bloody-mindedness, but I felt pretty rubbish when it deteriorated quite badly, especially on my face, when I was about 15 to 16. About the same time, our GP prescribed a coal tar preparation that was too strong – it burned my skin and I was off school for about three weeks with my mum treating my face with olive oil.

I didn’t like the coal tar ointments. If you got any of it on normal skin it would make the skin go purple, so even if you cleared up your psoriasis for a while, you’d have purple skin around the edges of where the plaques had been.

                   Jancis’s arm before Soratinex                                  And after using Soratinex

I remember earlier – when I was about eight – I was admitted to hospital in Manchester and kept in for sixteen days while they put on this awful-smelling ointment morning and night and then wrapped me in bandages. I remember sweet-talking the nurses to persuade them to give me some time without being wrapped up.

I came out of hospital with no psoriasis at all, but I remember being in the bath just a few weeks later and noticing it was all coming back. That has been my experience with lots of treatments; they sometimes work for a while but the psoriasis always comes back. Sometimes, with steroids, there is a rebound effect and it comes back worse than it was before.

I was bullied quite a bit at school but I tried to be resilient. A lot of the kids probably just wanted me to explain what was wrong with me. I do remember wishing I just had normal skin.

Last Easter time [2019], one of my colleagues at work told me her husband, whose psoriasis was even worse than mine, had cleared up after using Soratinex. I didn’t have any expectations but I thought I’d give it a go and ordered a large set.

It was easy to use but depending on how badly you are affected, it can be time-consuming. You have to be disciplined and stick with it. Using the gel on the scalp can sometimes be a bit difficult if you have to go to work because it can be a bit messy, so instead of using it twice a day, I just used it once.

But it was worth the effort. I began to see good results after two or three weeks. The plaques began to disappear and were replaced with pink skin, and then that faded too, leaving normal-looking skin everywhere. I’d say it took about eight weeks for me to clear up almost completely – I still have a few stubborn patches on my scalp and am treating them now.

For me, Soratinex has been miraculous. It really is quite remarkable – it is so nice not to have to think about it and worry about it all the time. It has allowed me to redefine who I am. I am not a person with psoriasis anymore; I am just like everyone else and it is a relief to have nice, clear skin.

I would recommend – and already have recommended – Soratinex to anyone affected by plaque psoriasis.