{"id":860317,"date":"2026-03-30T12:19:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/860317\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:19:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:19:56","slug":"i-caught-a-victorian-disease-that-made-people-avoid-me-and-fell-pregnant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/860317\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I caught a Victorian disease that made people avoid me – and fell pregnant’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jayne says people moved away from her when she went to hospitalNeil Shaw<\/strong><\/a> Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)<\/p>\n

07:38, 30 Mar 2026Updated 07:38, 30 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"Jayne<\/p>\n

Jayne had to go to hospital her rash was so severe<\/p>\n

A woman who was covered \u2018head-to-toe\u2019 in a rash after falling ill had to remove her contraceptive patch due to the outbreak – and fell pregnant. Jayne Walmsley noticed a rash spreading across her face and thought it may be chickenpox or an allergic reaction, but it was \u201ctripling\u201d each day.<\/p>\n

It reached the point where the 37-year-old was unrecognisable, resembling a \u201ctomato\u201d and looking as though she had suffered chemical burns. Jayne was taken to A&E, where she was told that, despite being vaccinated, she had measles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d said Jayne, a carer and artist from the West Midlands, \u201cMeasles in this day and age? I was so shocked that at the [then] age of 35, I had measles. I thought this was only something Victorian kids had to deal with.<\/p>\n

\"Jayne<\/p>\n

Jayne Walmsley showing the severe measles rash covering her face<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t know anybody who had it. I was the first case I\u2019d known of in 35 years. The nurse was as shocked as I was at how severe the rash was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jayne first noticed a change in her skin in mid April 2024, following a house move, describing it as a \u201cfew spots randomly across my face\u201d. The next day, it had \u2018tripled\u2019 and turned bright red. She said: \u201cI considered chickenpox, but they didn\u2019t seem to be the same shape, and I\u2019d already had chickenpox twice as a child, so I was hoping to rule that out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d also had shingles in my 20s and it didn\u2019t look like that either \u2013 these were bigger. I thought it must be an allergic reaction to some of the harsher cleaning products I had used when I moved in and started cleaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took antihistamines, but there was no change. Each day I woke up, it just tripled again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A severe patch of irritated skin on Jayne Walmsley’s arm caused by measles<\/p>\n

Jayne described the spots as \u201cvery red, raised and itchy\u201d but she had no other symptoms, so was perplexed. But a few days on, she woke up and found it had \u201cexploded\u201d across her skin.<\/p>\n

Jayne said: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just a rash \u2013 it looked like I\u2019d had a chemical burn. The rash was eating its way across my skin and was wrapped around my forehead. It had gone down my neck, covered my ears, and was even in my ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy lips were so swollen they were beginning to crack. The spots were showing up on my chest and back, all the way down my torso. They had also accumulated in one large, square, irritated lump under my contraceptive patch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took it off and placed another one on my thigh. When I looked in the mirror that day, my face had become so distorted and swollen I hardly recognized myself. It was so itchy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, I have a very pale complexion, but at this stage, I looked like a tomato \u2013 I was bright red.\u201d Jayne called 111 and was advised to go to A&E right away. She said: \u201cI remember walking into the waiting room and everyone stared at me. I was so embarrassed, and in that moment, I realised how severe it actually was.<\/p>\n

\"Jayne<\/p>\n

Jayne Walmsley with her newborn son, Jude<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like I had two heads. One person literally got up and moved away from me because they didn\u2019t want to sit in my vicinity.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the diagnosis, Jayne was prescribed calamine lotion and advised to stay at home, as well as remove her contraceptive patch and use another form of contraception in the meantime, due to it irritating her skin. The rash continued to spread in the days that followed.<\/p>\n

Jayne said: \u201cOver the next week, I had more spots than a pack of Dalmatians \u2013 I was completely plastered in them. No amount of moisturizer helped at all; calamine lotion only helped for a matter of seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would sit in a cold bath for hours just to ease the itching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jayne stayed home to focus on her recovery, and didn\u2019t leave the house for nearly two months. Throughout that time, she didn\u2019t put her contraceptive patch back on, and in early July got a shock when her period was late, and a pregnancy<\/a> test found she was expecting.<\/p>\n

\"Jayne<\/p>\n

Jayne at home after having her baby<\/p>\n

Jayne said: \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it \u2013 I did so many tests because it wouldn\u2019t sink in. My fianc\u00e9 and I had talked about having a child in the future, but it wasn\u2019t in our plans for that year. Given my age and the fact that I have PCOS, I never considered that I would get pregnant so quickly \u2013 I assumed it would be a much longer, more difficult journey when we were ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were both so happy, even though it wasn\u2019t planned. I was very anxious, though \u2013 you have to wait until 10 weeks to get in with the midwife, and I had concerns that the measles may have affected the baby in some way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went for a private scan at seven weeks and, thankfully, everything was OK and looked normal. That really put my mind at ease and took some of the anxiety away. This wasn’t either of our first children, but when we told our kids, they were very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jayne<\/p>\n

Jayne with her family<\/p>\n

While Jayne\u2019s pregnancy was marred by the scarring her measles had left her with, she was thrilled to welcome her son, Jude, in March 2025. She said: \u201cHe is absolutely perfect and has brought so much joy to our lives. I\u2019m so proud of him, and if I had to go through measles to have him, I have no regrets. I had to go through something ugly to get the most beautiful reward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly two years on from first contracting measles, Jayne still has some scarring and \u201cblotchy\u201d patches on her skin, and after not appreciating the severity of it herself prior to getting it, is speaking out to warn others.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWhat I want people to realise is that this disease is back, it\u2019s real, and it\u2019s not just children that get it. I\u2019m actually so glad I was vaccinated as a child. If I wasn’t and I caught it, I dread to think what the outcome would have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the protection of the vaccine, the illness was clearly less severe in all aspects other than the rash, which was still devastating. I would not wish this on anybody, let alone a child. I will absolutely be vaccinating my son, Jude, to protect him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everyone is vaccinated, it lowers the risk of this type of thing happening to others and protects them if they get it. Don\u2019t assume that because everyone else is vaccinated, you\u2019re covered \u2013 we all need to do our part. Measles is back, and it\u2019s brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jayne says people moved away from her when she went to hospitalNeil Shaw Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[47568,105,2207,1819,591,16,15],"class_list":["post-860317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-contraception","tag-health","tag-hospitals","tag-measles","tag-pregnancy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116318099456132979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}