Most of us know that the sun is not our friend. We might enjoy laying out and getting a tan, but we need to be careful because the sun can be dangerous.
Nobody knows this better than a truck driver from South Yorkshire. His name is Steve and he is 54 years old and although he was out in the sun when driving a truck, he never applied any sunscreen.
He didn’t realize that he had damaged his skin but eventually, he could notice the difference from one side of his face to the other. You will notice the damage easily on the right side of his face, which is exposed to the sun because he was driving in the UK.
There are deeper lines and wrinkles and they started showing up about four or five years prior to the picture. He said that looking at himself in the mirror, he would pull his skin back and think he was aging.
Steve had already driven a truck for about 30 years and was on the road six days a week. He said: “To be honest, I believed it was simply a natural part of aging, and I never contemplated seeking any treatments, until I recalled a newspaper article featuring a UV photograph of a lorry driver’s face displaying severe sun damage exclusively on his right side.
“That’s when it dawned on me… My lines and wrinkles were likely the result of sun damage as well.”
Even though he knew that the sun was the likely reason behind the skin damage, it took a visit to an aesthetic doctor, Dr. Hannah Higgins before he finally gave in and started wearing sunscreen.
He said: “She informed me that the sun had not only harmed the surface of my skin but also the deeper layers, causing a slight sinking of the right side of my face.”
She has prescribed a medical-grade skincare routine and application of SPF 50 every day.
The doctor said: “I have encountered female patients with asymmetrical lines in the past, often caused by simple factors like consistently sleeping on one side of their face, which can accelerate the aging process. However, the asymmetry resulting from the sun damage on Steve’s face was more pronounced than anything I had witnessed before.”
“The entire face displayed indications of UV damage; there was redness, erythema (skin reddening), age spots, and pigmentation, along with an elevated presence of surface oil compared to what I would typically expect,” she added.
These days, the driver is urging everyone to use sunscreen, whether they are outdoors or in the cabin of the truck.
