'I was bullied and there was nothing I could do... I was spending a fortune and couldn't sleep - then everything changed'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A teenager who suffers with “painful” cystic acne across her face and body - which prompted bullying at school and prevented her from sleeping - has been left frustrated not knowing why her most recent flare-up vanished.

Harriet Curtis, 19, from Haywards Heath in West Sussex, was 14 when she experienced her first acne breakout which caused red and “irritated” spots to appear in clusters over her face, chest and back – saying some children at her secondary school would bully her because of it which left her “distraught”.

She was prescribed a contraceptive pill to help her complexion and found her skin became “really clear” for a number of years, however last summer, Harriet said the stress of her A-level exams caused her to break out again and she felt “so out of control” of her appearance. READ MORE: 'We dropped our BMW at Manchester Airport, what we came back to was disgusting' According to the NHS, there are six main types of spot caused by acne, with cysts being the most severe which come in the form of large, pus-filled lumps and which carry the greatest risk of causing permanent scarring.

From November 2023 to March this year, Harriet said her skin was the “worst” it had ever been, saying it was so painful she could not sleep on her side and she would not feel comfortable to leave the house without putting on “layers” of make-up to hide her spots.