LOVE Island’s Olivia Bowen has shared graphic photos of her psoriasis battle.
The reality star revealed she’s on a desperate hunt for a sunbed to help as her skin condition worsens.
The 27-year-old went topless as she took to her Instagram Stories to ask her followers for their help, while detailing the extent of her problem.
She said: “Hi guys – I wouldn’t usually ask about sun beds and I don’t actually use them however, my psoriasis (which I talked about the other saying it was on my chest and scalp) has now travelled all over my back and stomach and is making its way down my arms and legs!
“The only thing that helped when I was 17 when it was all over my body was a sun bed. I’ve called numerous places today with no luck of renting.
“I wondered if anyone could recommend my a sunbed rental for home in Essex?”
The tattoo-lover, who is married to her fellow Love Island star Alex Bowen, went on to describe the extent of her condition called Guttate Psoriasis, which shows up on the skin red, scaly spots.
Explaining over a snap of one side of her body, she wrote: “It’s like this over about 50% of my body now, it’s actually now that bad right now in comparison to what I had at 17 – but its been spreading over my body everyday I wake up for the past week – which it’ll continue to do until the patches are large around 3/5cm each and cover more like 85% of my body.
“It flares up after I’m ill or really stressed.
“Unless I stand in direct light and close to the camera you can’t see it on photos.
“My skin has been like this for a week or so now and you can’t tell in my normal photo, so PLEASE this is a reminder to take photographs on Instagram with a pinch of salt.
“Lighting, angles – all diffuse skin blemishes.”
She added: “I really hope that seeing this makes you feel more accepted in your skin/body, because god knows when I was 17 and was covered in head to toe on my girls holiday – I could of used it.”
The next Instagram story showed a video of the star showing her followers her current rash from all angles, while protecting her modesty.
In a final plea she went on: “Psoriasis is normal. It’s OK. I’m with you. God knows it’s annoying but it’s OK!
“Unless my photos are super clear and up close – you can’t even see it.
“So let this be a reminder to you that posed pics on Insta aren’t as clear as they seem! I won’t let you guys think how I thought back when I had it at 17.”
Rounding off her heart-to-heart, Olivia further elaborated on her sunbed request asking specifically for “UVB light therapy/sunbeds”, adding that it “worked so well for before.”
