A 20-YEAR-OLD man who lives in constant discomfort due to aggressive psoriasis, is battling a county health body after it refused to fund the treatment he desperately needs.

Ewan Everton said the condition, which covers 90 per cent of his body, leaves his skin flared-up and constantly shedding, meaning he struggles to lead a normal life.

Having been diagnosed 11 years ago, he has been on a series of different treatments funded by the South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), to combat the incurable condition.

However, Mr Everton said the CCG had stopped offering the treatment as it hadn't had a positive effect.

“I tried three different biologic medications but because they didn’t have a huge effect on the condition, they took me off them,” said Mr Everton, from Barbourne, Worcester.

“They said the adverse effects would have been worse than the positives if I was kept on them.

“If three different medications don’t work, the CCG don’t want to do any more and they stop the funding.”

He says the decision has left him in limbo, having appealed it three times with the help of his mum Bev Collins since the last course of medication in December 2017, to no avail.

Mr Everton has been assigned to a consultant at City Hospital Birmingham for the length of his treatment, though his funding comes from South Worcestershire CCG due to where he lives.

“Since the age of 18 he’s been on three biological drugs, basically quite experimental and need funding from the CCG and we have to approach Worcester for approval of funding,” said Mrs Collins.

“There’s apparently a new drug on the market which they won’t even consider funding him for.

“But his psoriasis is still as bad as ever,” she explained.

“It’s a lifelong condition but the right medication will give him a large amount of resolve and comfort. They don’t seem to understand that.

“He’s had it for 11 years – longer than he’s not had it.”

She said he is currently using “coal tar cream” – “to give himself any kind of relief – but it’s a really archaic treatment.”

He bathes with special solutions from health food shops and applies the cream twice a day, but Mr Everton said it ruins his clothes because it makes them damp and greasy.

His mum said he is unable to do martial arts as often as he’d like due to the discomfort caused by the condition and “it’ll be hard for him to hold down a full-time job”.

She said the average person’s skin sheds around once every 30 days but due to the psoriasis her son’s skin sheds every two or three days.

“He is literally surrounded by skin peeling off and it’s very red and angry.”

Mr Everton, who will turn 21 at the end of the month, currently works in the HR department at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

“My job involves a lot of sitting at a desk, which is good because physical activity often causes my skin to crack and bleed,” he said.

“But I can’t really focus due to the pain and because moving around at all hurts.”

He was taken off one of the treatments, which was keeping the condition under control, because it was damaging his kidneys and liver, but he feels the CCG’s three-times rule should be scrapped.

“Just because three treatments haven’t worked, doesn’t mean none will ever work.

“They are developing new treatments all the time, but I’ll never get to try them,” he added.

A spokesperson for the three Worcestershire CCGs, said: “Unfortunately, we’re unable to comment on individual cases.”

When asked if they could provide a general comment regarding the three treatments ruling, they did not provide anything before the Worcester News went to print.