Mum who was bullied over eczema finds ‘miracle’ salve made from donkey milk

A mother with eczema who was bullied “relentlessly” at school, with her peers telling her she had a “disease”, has found a “miracle” donkey milk salve and can now go swimming for the first time with her children.

Megan Duncan, 24, a planning assistant who lives in Lanarkshire, Scotland, has had the condition which causes inflammation, redness and irritation of the skin “everywhere” on her body since she was a baby, causing her skin to look “raw, sore, flaky and red” and feel like “sandpaper”.

Growing up, she said other pupils commented on her skin constantly and she was often ostracised and felt “sad”.

She said eating too many eggs or stress can exacerbate her eczema, and she has tried every available cream or topical treatment, and even sunbeds, to alleviate her symptoms, but none have worked.

As an adult, Megan said many people have given her unsolicited advice or told her to apply moisturiser, which is frustrating as she is aware of her skin 24/7, but after doing some research one day, she came across a salve which contains donkey milk, and this has been a “miracle cure”.

Megan, who is a single mother to Gracie, two, and Poppy, one can now go swimming, wear shorts and do activities and household chores without experiencing extreme pain and discomfort.

“Obviously with everything that happened in school, I would get bullied, so I didn’t want to go out and do things with other kids,” Megan told PA Real Life.

“My friends would go swimming and I would just avoid going completely. I’ve actually been avoiding swimming until recently… but now I’ve started going with the kids because I’m not so self-conscious.”

“I can do the dishes without experiencing pain and I’ve been wearing shorts this summer as well.”

“It’s lovely because I missed out on my first daughter’s first swim… but I got to experience that with my second.”

According to the NHS, eczema affects people of all ages but is most common in young children, and although it cannot be cured, treatment can help manage the symptoms.

“I’ve had eczema since I was a baby, and you can see in my baby photos, it’s all over my legs, all over my arms, my face everywhere that’s visible,” Megan said.

She said her mother applied creams and topical medications prescribed by doctors on the affected areas when she was younger, but they never provided long-term relief.

Megan was often left out of group activities as a youngster, which she said was “horrible” and made her “not want to go to school”.

She said: “In Scotland, we do these Scottish dances at school, and it does stick in my mind that nobody wanted to do it with me because I had eczema all over my hands.”

“It was horrible, absolutely horrible, and it made me not want to go to school at all.”

Megan said she “tried just about every cream the doctor is able to prescribe”, but these only provided temporary relief.

She said topical steroids can be effective but are usually only used for between seven and 14 days and, as soon as you stop using them, the eczema can return.

“It’s like your skin’s addicted to them,” she said.

She said she was also told that topical steroids should not be used long term or during pregnancy, and it was while she was pregnant with her first child that she experienced the “worst flare-up” she ever had.

“It appeared all over my face, neck, sides, arms and hands, and even under my fingernails were red, raw, cracked and bleeding,” she said.

“It was agony because it was everywhere even putting things like jeans on, it would rub on it. Everything was just agony.”

After having her daughter Gracie, Megan was prescribed steroids again by her doctor to try to control multiple flare-ups, but her skin was “getting worse and worse”.

In desperation and on someone’s advice, she tried sunbeds around three years ago, as moderate sun exposure can improve symptoms, but she said: “As a pale Scottish girl, it did more harm than good.”

Megan said there were many days when she did not want to leave the house and she would always cover up her body, even during the warmer summer months.

However, “on a whim”, while doing some research earlier this year, she came across Hydrosil Turmeric Butter & Milk Salve, which contains donkey milk.

Although she found this to be an “odd” ingredient, she said her research showed it could be effective for eczema.

“I came across Hydrosil online and I thought, ‘Well, what’s the worst that could happen?'” she said.

“The donkey milk, it’s a weird ingredient as usually it’s oat milk, shea butter or cocoa butter, but when I read up on the donkey milk, it’s actually good for eczema because it won’t irritate your skin.”

Megan started applying the salve in the morning with her usual skincare routine, and noticed immediately that it did not “burn” like other topical treatments.

After a few days of using the salve, the redness and itching reduced and she noticed her skin “wasn’t as rough, like sandpaper”, and after two weeks, the deeper cracks in her skin started to heal.

She said it felt “absolutely amazing” to find a treatment that works and that she can use indefinitely and to date, she has been applying the cream for five months, describing it as a “miracle cure”.

“It was such a relief,” she said.

“Before, with my other creams, I was constantly chopping and changing between them and there’s a time limit on how long you can use them.”

“If someone’s suffering with their skin that much they’re looking for a miracle cure, then they’ve got nothing to lose.”

“Don’t give up hope, there’s something out there that will work for everybody.”