A woman who was forced to leave Australia due to a debilitating skin condition has enjoyed a pain-free swim at the beach for the first time in over 50 years.
Faye Haines, 54, was diagnosed with an extremely severe case of eczema at just four-months-old described by countless specialists as the worst they had seen.
Ms Haines was essentially allergic to everything including dust mites, makeup, fragrances, materials, plastics, food, textiles, dyes, pollen and grass.
Her allergies would trigger her chronic eczema, causing a painful rash with oozing sores that erupted all over her body and caused her skin to peel off.
In her late teens to early 20s, Ms Haine's eczema was rife. She was hospitalised 20 times and would have to be bandaged up like she was a burns victim.
'When I went into hospital, they would wrap me from head to toe with bandages because I lost so much skin that it was like fluid I was just weeping,' Ms Haines told Daily Mail Australia.
'I'd had to have wet treatments where they would wrap me a couple times a day in wet bandages and excessive amounts of cream.
'I was also treated intravenously for the infection. My doctors said I had to do the bandages at home, which obviously made it extremely difficult to lead a normal life.
Ms Haines explained she had a long-list of allergies which would worsen her eczema.
'I couldn't shower as doctors told me to avoid water and advised me to bathe in salt water but when I went to the beach I would just be screaming because the salt water was like pouring acid over the cuts covering my entire body.'
Doctors prescribed Ms Haines a high dose of prednisone but that did not work.
However, everything changed after she discovered she was allergic to the Australian climate after a trip to the UK when she was 19-years-old.
'Wearing full bandages in the Australian heat was pretty damn difficult and I just ended up becoming more and more isolated,' Ms Haines explained.
'When it was hot I'd have flies swarming around me, like going for all the open wounds on my body.
'I couldn't go out walking, forget going on a bush walk, forget the beach, forget everything that makes Australia the country that it is.
'As soon as I left the country, it [severe eczema] went away. It was just mind-boggling to go from a kind of disability to being absolutely normal.
'But when I came back [to Australia] it came back. When I went to the UK again in my 20s, again I was cured.'
After three trips to the UK, doctors advised Ms Haines to consider moving overseas permanently for the chance of a 'normal life'.
In 1999, Ms Haines made the difficult decision to move to the UK, leaving her family and friends in Australia.
'I still had eczema but on a scale of one to 100, it was probably at about 30 or 40 in the UK as opposed to 100 in Australia,' she said.
Ms Haines would visit Australia every year at Christmas and for the entire month experience the excruciating symptoms of her severe eczema.
After a brief stint back in Australia with her husband and their son, Ms Haines moved back to the UK again in 2016.
However, after experiencing a horrific reaction following her second Covid vaccine which left her bedridden for two years, Ms Haines was desperate for a cure.
The mum-of-one shared pictures of her condition to an Australian eczema Facebook group and was advised to try a 'biologic' treatment called Dupilumab (Dupixent).
Ms Haines made a plan to be healthy enough to travel back to Australia to trial the drug and in August this year had her first injection.
The injection worked within hours, with Ms Haines left in complete disbelief.
'I could win the lottery fifty times and it wouldn't come close to the feeling I have from being eczema free,' she said.
'It's a bloody miracle and feels incredible, I still can't believe it and never thought I'd have skin so clear and soft.'
'It's quite insane the basic things I can do now like jump in the shower, walk in the park, go for a swim - they were off limits before.'
Last week, Ms Haines swam at an Australian beach for the first time in 54 years without feeling any pain.
The Newcastle local is now able to take her 10-year-old son to the park, on bush walks and even to the beach.
'It's really a blessing for my family to see me healed, because now I can spend time with them as I was meant to be,' Ms Haines said.
'I hope I live to 110 because I have a lot of lost time to make up for. I feel like I can live for the firs time ever with no pain.'
Along with her fortnightly injections, Ms Haines also uses products from Australian-owned natural skincare brand MooGoo to help rejuvenate her skin.
She said products like the Udder Cream, the Amplified Anti-Ageing Peptide and shampoo cured her of her dry skin and scalp.
'The injections took all the eczema away, but it didn’t really take the dryness. It was like I was snowing,' Ms Haines said.
'The cream I’ve been using has made my skin really soft, and the dryness is almost gone. I started using the MooGoo shampoo and conditioner and it worked. I’ve noticed my hair is starting to grow back what I lost with the eczema on my scalp.'