A woman who ended up with sun poisoning after falling asleep on the beach for five hours says the swelling was so severe her own sister didn’t even recognise her.
Isabela Chatwin says she was left looking like 'a giant marshmallow' after going on holiday to San Diego, California, and deciding to skip wearing sun cream. Bad idea, Isabela.
The 21-year-old said that as it was an overcast day she thought she could forgo her spf - but soon learnt the hard way that wasn’t the case.
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Isabela took a short nap on the beach, but ended up lying out for around five hours and although she was initially fine, the next morning her face was bright red.
And as the days went on she began to develop blisters and eventually ended up with a painful swollen face.
Her face was so bad that once back home in Lehi, Utah, her three-year-old sister Aero didn’t recognise her.
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Isabela said: "I fell asleep on the beach for five hours. When I woke up my skin looked completely fine for the rest of the day, the next morning it was bright red.
"I thought it was just a sunburn and that's as bad as it was going to get. I woke up the next day and it was puffy and blisters on my cheeks and it was painful.
"On the fourth day, my face was so swollen and the blisters had popped. I could barely opening my eyes, I could barely see.
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"I thought it was going to be permanent. I was really scared. It hardly looked human. It was like a giant marshmallow, just completely swollen.
"When I got home, I was wearing a surgical mask to hide it so Aero knew it was me because of my voice.
"I took it off for the first time at the doctors and that's when she saw my face was completely different and she ran to my mum saying 'is that Bela?'.
"I teased her and said 'my name was Jessica, nice to meet you'. Then she said I looked like a turtle."
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Isabela recently shared footage of the moment her sister failed to recognise her on TikTok and, five years on from the incident, now urges others to always wear sun cream, even if it's a cloudy day.
Isabela said: "It's funny to look back but it was excruciatingly painful. I usually wear sun cream because I have really fair skin.
"It was a cloudy day, it had rained and I didn't realise I was going to sleep that long.
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"It doesn't matter what the sky looks like, if you're outside and the sun is up, protect your skin no matter what.
"I'm really cautious now. I wear sun cream if I'm out for more than an hour and I don't do tanning beds because I don't want to risk it."
Claire Reid