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A MELBOURNE teenager has revealed she is allergic to water and can only shower for a minute before she is overcome by pain.
Ashleigh Morris, 19, told the UK’s Daily Mail of her condition which causes her to break out in red sores when she comes into contact with water.
She is even allergic to her own sweat so she rarely ventures outdoors, has given up on playing sports and never goes swimming.
"Although my rash is unsightly, and often looks like I'm diseased, the feeling is so much worse than it looks," she told the paper.
"I can't go anywhere for about two hours afterwards because it's so severe.
"There's been many occasions where I've been so itchy, I've made myself bleed from scratching."
Ashleigh has suffered from the rare affliction, aquagenic urticaria, since she was 14.
It is believed to have developed when a course of penicillin altered the histamine levels in her body.
Ashleigh, a journalism student, does not have any reaction to drinking water but contact with her skin leads to the hives.
She said her family had been very supportive as had her boyfriend Adam, 23, despite the problems it can cause.
"We have to sleep with a sheet between us at night, and I can't go near him if he's sweaty," Ashleigh told the Daily Mail.
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Image above: Ashleigh, 19, has been allergic to water for five years.
