“My face swelled up so much on holiday I didn’t think I’d make it through passport control”

A woman was left shocked after her face began to swell while enjoying a holiday in the sun. Excited about a trip away, Tara Omidi from Oldham, Manchester traveled to Lanzarote.

Just days after the holiday, the 30-year-old woke up to find her skin swollen. A few hours later, things went from bad to worse. Tara was terrified that she might have to go to the hospital.

She rushed to her local pharmacist for advice and was told to stay out of the sun and monitor her symptoms. Tara said: “I woke up with a swollen forehead and eye and it gradually got worse by the hour.

“Fortunately, there was no pain. I went to the pharmacy in Lanzarote and was given strong antihistamines and advised to keep my face covered for the rest of the holiday. I have never had an allergic reaction or sun poisoning in my life.”

Fortunately, three days later, the swelling went down slightly. Tara was still worried if she would have trouble at passport control on the way home.

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She said: “I was a bit nervous going through passport control because I didn’t look like myself.” Tara had extreme swelling on the right side of her face – her eye almost forced shut. She wants to warn others about the dangers of sun poisoning.

The islands are known for being extremely windy, which can make temperatures feel colder. This in turn often causes people to not realize how powerful the sun really is.

Tara said: “Everyone said the Canary Islands are quite notorious for sun poisoning. Because of the intense heat and it being quite windy, you don’t realize how hot it is. Many people I spoke to said that when they went to the Canary Islands they all had the same thing which was sun poisoning.”

One commenter wrote: “Sun poisoning happened to me in Lanzarote!!! I had to go to the hospital to get an injection in my butt lol.” Another said: “This happened to my mum in Turkey, she had to have an injection and antibiotics there…she’s never had it before and it just happened.”

“Defo sun poisoning. Ruined my vacation,” wrote a third. “Wow, I had this on my hen do in Tenerife and thought it was my eyeshadow! I’ve never even heard of sun poisoning,” said Ons. Another added: “My sun poisoning swelled up so bad it was like that for 3 days until it fell off.”