Schoolgirl's skin erupts in blisters as she suffers allergic reaction to the sun on plane home from family holiday



After a sun-drenched family holiday, schoolgirl Phoebe Richards was looking forward to showing off her glowing tan back home.

Instead, on the flight home, the 17-year-old's skin erupted in gruesome plum-sized blisters on her chest and arm.

Phoebe spent up to five hours a day in the sun as temperatures in Portugal climbed to almost 100f (38c).



Patched up: Phoebe Richards is on the mend after suffering an allergic reaction to the sun, air conditioning and cabin pressure on her flight home

Horrific holiday snaps: Phoebe Richards shows her painful blisters caused by an allergic reaction to the sun



The A-level student said she plastered her fair skin with factor 15-20 sun cream and stayed out of the sun in the middle of the day.

By the end of the fortnight she had a golden tan, but then the blisters erupted on the return flight.

'I was a little bit burnt anyway, so maybe the pressure on the plane made my skin weep and then it formed these blisters,' she said.

Upset: Phoebe was distressed when her skin erupted in blisters after a family holiday in Portugal

'When you just want to be brown you just stay in the sun. Because I hadn't been on holiday for so long I just wanted a nice tan.



'We didn't really go out in the sun between 12 and 4pm because it was too hot but I probably spent about four to five hours in the sun each day.'



Phoebe, from Clevedon, near Bristol, and her boyfriend, Olli, 18, had joined her parents, Trudi and David, her sister Lydia, 19, and Lydia's boyfriend for a week in a villa in Carvoeiro on the Algarve.

After her family flew home, the teenager and her boyfriend then spent a second week on the Portuguese coast.



Back home, doctors confirmed that the blisters were severe sunburn and Phoebe was given compression bandages to try to prevent scarring.



But they warned that she could suffer permanent marks. 'I've got two blisters on my arm and one on my chest,' she said. 'I'm just glad it's not my face.'

She warned other girls about the dangers of staying out in the sun.

Clare O'Connor, head of suncare research and development at Boots, said cases like Phoebe's were generally due to using sun cream with the wrong sun protection factor and UVA protection for your skin, and failing to reapply it regularly.