Addressing Psoriasis™ Winners

From embarrasment to liberation
Cynthia Lawrence
Age 49, Hanover, Pa.

Cynthia Lawrence has had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis since she was a kid. One of her six children, a son, has the disease. Recently, her 1-year-old granddaughter was diagnosed with it.

Cynthia remembers her first major flare at age 19. Even her face was affected. "It looked as though I'd been burned, and people stared. It made me want to hide."

So hide she did. For decades, she wore white almost exclusively and shunned jewelry. Finally, an embarrassing moment at the furniture store where she was working broke her silence.

"I was showing a customer a particular sofa. I bent down to get the price off and left a nice shower of flakes on the black sofa. And the customer said, 'What is all over that sofa?' and I said, 'Oh gosh, I don't know.' "

After the customer left, Cynthia decided to talk to a co-worker about having psoriasis. She wasn't going to avoid talking about it any longer.

Since that day, Cynthia has been wearing whatever she wants—particularly bright colors and black clothing. She's also traded demure pearl studs for dangling hoops and funky necklaces that draw attention to her face and head.

When Cynthia read about the Addressing Psoriasis™ contest, she thought of her granddaughter.

"I don't want her to ever feel ashamed or embarrassed," she says. "I would love to be able to tell someone if I scattered flakes on furniture, 'I am sorry, I have a skin condition,' and for them to be able to understand what it was."