As a child I had fairly severe psoriasis. I am 47 now and back then, the main treatments were steroid creams and cold tar ointment thankfully I went through puberty and it seem to disappear and I thought that was then end of it.

I was first diagnosed when I was 18. Psoriasis appeared over night literally! I went to bed after a night out absolutely fine and woke up in the morning covered in small scaly spots and patches all over my body, with no idea of what it was (never heard of psoriasis) my first GP thought it was chicken pox or scabies.

 I had psoriasis at the age of 17 , it became really bad that it was painful and would split, I was given creams and lotions but nothing touched it , I felt everyone was pointing at me and talking about me , then 1 day I discovered Vaseline, I covered myself in it then went into shower got a bic razor blade broke plastic of under the blade and sliced my psoriasis off

I was first ill in the winter of 1979/80 with a flu like virus. I was working full time and had a daughter who was one, so I carried on as best I could.

My psoriasis started when I was 14 and I received the usual coal tar ointment and sun-ray treatments at the local hospital. It wasn't until my daughter was born that a couple of my fingers became swollen. After the birth of my son 4 years later the condition deteriorated. I was living aboard and came home to the UK for specialist attention, it was then that psoriatic arthropathy was diagnosed.

 I was seventeen and had been experiencing pain in my legs for a while, usually on my way to catch the school bus in the morning. I put it down to being unfit and dismissed it. As far as I was concerned my only health problem was psoriasis, which I had suffered with since childhood.

I first noticed a small patch of what I thought was eczema on my right leg. I was not too concerned even though it did not respond to any of the normal applications. The condition seemed to come and go so it didn't affect me unduly.

After a dermatologist diagnosed psoriasis I had many periods in hospital for intensive treatment, which consisted of ultraviolet light therapy and tar baths. The only problem being that I eventually became allergic to some of the creams, and could only tolerate less than three minutes of ultra violet light before burning.

My psoriasis started when I was ten years old, itchy red patches with silvery scaly skin which fell off every time I moved. I was admitted to hospital for a month during which time I endured pain and the humiliation of a treatment which included foul smelling creams and baths, scrubbing my skin with a brush and having part of my scalp pulled off by nurses using a 'nit comb' to remove scales from my hair! Once my skin had cleared I was allowed home, but the psoriasis quickly returned.

I was diagnosed to be suffering from psoriatic arthritis when I was my early thirties. I experienced pain and stiffness in my knees, especially the right, with the symptoms hinting of arthritis but because all the blood tests showed no abnormality it was not till after an arthroscopy on the right knee later that year that the Consultant diagnosed PsA.