Gerrard Kaonga
A British man found out the hard way that if you spending a lot of time in the Sun, it's important to have adequate protection.
Steve, a 56-year-old truck driver from Yorkshire, UK, realized just how important taking care of your skin is after visiting an aesthetic doctor.
He had never so much as worn any sunscreen or moisturized his skin in his life. To make matters worse, being a driver for 30 years meant that Steve wasn't exactly shielded from the Sun's UV radiation.
Three decades of the job eventually took its toll on his skin and it became visibly clear that one side of his face had aged more than the other.
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Speaking to the Mirror, Steve said: "For the last four or five years I was noticing deep lines and wrinkles on the right side of my face. I used to look in the mirror and pull the skin around my eye back and think to myself, 'I'm getting old'."
As part of his job, Steve would spend six days a week on the road, with the Sun hitting primarily his right side.
"To be honest, I thought it was part and parcel of ageing and I never thought about having any treatments, until I remembered a newspaper picture and story featuring a UV photo of a lorry driver's face showing the really bad Sun damage just on his right side," he continued.
"That's when it clicked with me... My lines and wrinkles were also likely caused by Sun damage."
Despite realizing that Sun damage could be the culprit, Steve didn't start using SPF until he saw Dr Hannah Higgins, aesthetic doctor and clinical director of The Wellness Space in Barnsley.
He said: "She told me the Sun had not only damaged the surface of my skin, but the deeper layers too, which had caused the right side of my face to sink a little bit.
"She also said I had a skin condition called rosacea, which was making my face a bit red."
Steve's doctor gave him a medical-grade skincare regime together with a 50 SPF to use every day before she could treat him to correct the unevenness of his face.
"I've seen female patients with asymmetrical lines before, often caused by simple things, such as always sleeping on one side of their face, which can cause more advanced ageing," Dr Higgins explained.
"However, the asymmetry caused by the Sun damage to Steve's face was more marked than anything I'd previously seen.
"His entire face showed signs of UV damage; there was redness, erythema (reddening), age spots and pigmentation, plus more oil resting on the surface of the skin than I'd normally expect."
After following Dr Higgins's regime, Steve could be treated with a dermal filler treatment to smooth out the appearance of his wrinkles.
"Now, I'd tell everyone to use sunscreen whether they are in a lorry cab or outside," Steve said.