A British woman has issued a travel warning after her first ever holiday abroad to Portugal was marred by a health issue which required hospitalisation the moment she returned home
A British woman holidaying in Portugal admitted she has “learned her lesson” following a harrowing experience that saw her taken ill on her travels. Shan took to TikTok after her ordeal, revealing she “nearly died” on her first ever holiday abroad.
“What could go wrong?” she began sarcastically. In a series of snaps, Shan continued to tell her tale. “Arrived, the weather was gorgeous – 23 degrees – nothing too outrageous for my skin,” she said. While the first few hours of her trip passed without incident as she relaxed by her resort’s pool, little did Shan know her health was about to take a turn for the worse.
“Two hours later, I decided to head back in and grab a drink and some snacks and noticed this,” she continued alongside an image of her legs that had quickly become pink in tone.
Then, over the next 24 years, Shan revealed the situation became “progressively worse” as the pink became red, resulting in her panicking and “struggling to walk”.
She woke the next morning to discover her feet had swelled drastically, leaving her “physically unable” to walk to the bathroom.
“I managed to crawl into the lift and come outside in the shade because I am not missing out on my holiday,” Shan added. “But at this point, everyone was shocked to see me.”
After managing to see out her trip without the need to get her ailment checked out, Shan said she “braved the flight home” wearing compression socks. On her arrival home, however, she headed straight to hospital.
“I arrived back in the UK and my legs had swollen again,” she said with an image to outline her point. “Blisters on my ankles, every walk is agony, every little movement hurts – I just think it’s sunburn (I had sunscreen on).”
It would only get worse for Shan, however. An image taken in A&E revealed her now heavily bandaged legs as she laid on a stretcher awaiting further treatment. “They gave me morphine and a s**t tonne of water for dehydration,” she continued. “I was seen instantly with burns on my ankles and legs.
“I was dressed and cleaned up with pain relief and antibiotics to go home with four weeks of resting.”
But what was the diagnosis? “Skin poisoning,” Shan said.
In a clip, which was seen by more than 2.2million TikTok users, she said: “After a bandage change every day and a lesson learnt to wear factor 50 instead of 30, I will hopefully be returning on holiday at some point!”
Skin poisoning – known medically as polymorphic light eruption – is a skin rash that can happen after exposure to sunlight.
The NHS advises online: “It’s more likely to happen when your skin is exposed to strong sunlight for the first time in a while, such as in spring or early summer, or when visiting a sunny country.
“The rash may come back every time your skin is exposed to sunlight. But as the summer goes on, your skin becomes more used to sunlight and it’s less likely to happen.
“You’re more likely to get polymorphic light eruption if you’re under 40, a woman or you have white skin. Boys aged 5 to 14 years are more likely to get a type of polymorphic light eruption called juvenile spring eruption that affects the ears.”