Jane Stuart, 32, an assistant manager of a small supermarket from Kinross in Scotland is married to Hendry Stuart, 43, a farmer and has two children, Iain 13, Emma 11.

Jane says:

I’ve had psoriasis since my early 20’s after contracting it due to a viral infection. I became very run down during the infection and quickly developed psoriasis as a result. My mother also had very mild psoriasis so I guess I’m genetically prone to it.

I’ve actually now got both types of psoriasis, guttate and plaque. The most upsetting place I get it is on my scalp and on my hands as I can’t cover that up.

I work a lot with food and I feel very self conscious of my hands as I handle the food, even though I know the condition is not contagious. People think you are infectious. When I first started my job here at the supermarket and one of the customers went to my manger and said she didn’t want to be served by me as she thought I had a disease.

One of the most upsetting incidents was one the first day of my daughters primary school. When she came out of the school gates I gave her a hug huge. I looked up and saw this group of mothers staring with horror at me and one asked me if I should be touching my daughter. I felt like a leper, it was awful.

I have suffered depression as a result of my condition and poor Hendry often has to plead with me to get me out of the house to socialise, which I rarely do these days.

Until now I’ve used T-Gel for my scalp which doesn’t really work, but it’s soothing to use. For my skin I use a non –steroid cream called Dovonex, which helps keep the scales on my skin from getting worse, but doesn’t do much to actually reduce a flair up.

I used to use steroids, but after two years of near constant use they began to lose their effectiveness. I was also worried about how often I was using them as they can thin the skin and the last thing I wanted was another skin problem.

I found out about Oregon Grape Root because I enrolled on a trial to test it. When you get psoriasis as badly as I do and you’ve tried just about every treatment under the sun, you’ll try anything new once. Most things don’t work of course and some can make the condition worse, but I think it’s always worth a try just in case I do find that one thing that works for me. And I am so glad that I did volunteer to try the Oregon Care Range.

As soon as I started using the spray on my scalp, which I thought was a brilliant idea as I’ve never found anything specifically made for scalp psoriasis, the effects were immediate. The patches of scales on my scalp started to recede within a week of use of the spray.

The cream took a little longer to work, but I guess the scales on my skin are deeper. But within two weeks the dark red patches of skin where my psoriasis is, has changed to a much lighter pink and the scales has visibly shrunk. I could not believe my eyes when I look at my skin each day, it literally felt like my psoriasis was melting away.

After six weeks of use the patches of psoriasis are largely gone. There are still light pink patches where the psoriasis was but the scaling has virtually disappeared and there has been no sigh of a new flare up since I started the new treatment.

The makers asked me to stop using the cream and spray after six weeks to see what happened. Within a week my psoriasis came back with a vengeance, so without waiting to be asked I immediately started using the treatment again.

Now my psoriasis is barely visible and I’ve even started to be able to wear short sleeved t-shirts for the first time in about ten years. I might even venture in shorts when the weather gets warmer, you’ve no idea how liberating being able to think that way about clothes again is for me. I also went out last week without make up on for the first time in years, which was such a relief, not to feel like I have to be constantly camouflaged.

I would definitely recommend this treatment to other people. It properly works and it’s really convenient and pleasing to use. The spray is perfect for the scalp as it doesn’t make your hair greasy and you get even coverage of all areas and the cream is really moisturising and soothing to use. Finding this treatment has honestly changed my life, its allowed me to start enjoying the summer and family outings instead of staying at home all the time and worrying what people will think if they see any of my skin exposed.