Mum reveals how booze can trigger a burning red rash which coats her entire body

Cass, once a party animal, has now reinvented herself as a fitness fanatic.

A former self-proclaimed party animal has reinvented herself as a fitness fanatic after discovering that booze can trigger an allergic reaction which sees her coated in a burning red rash.

As an estimated 4.2 million Brits are set to attempt Dry January, according to a poll by YouGov, one person who knows the benefits of cutting back on alcohol all too well is 42-year-old Cass Bowman.

In her younger years, she loved nothing more than hitting the town for a few drinks with her friends.

But all that changed around eight years ago, when she suddenly began to suffer a mysterious reaction to alcohol that would see her skin become red and blotchy.

Over time, it worsened to the point where her flesh felt as if it had been “scalded,” and her breathing became affected too.

Cass, of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, who works with children, said: “It can spring up anywhere on my body, and my skin gets so hot I can’t even touch it. Before all this, I was quite a party animal. I’d go out weekdays and weekends, downing pints and all sorts.”

On an average night, Cass would have around 10 drinks, a mix of spirits, cider and lager.  And, for a big celebration, it would be even more.

She said: “Now, I’ve cut right back to only having a few vodkas or gins every so often. That seems to have done the trick for now, but if this comes back and makes my breathing worse, I’ll have no choice but to quit drinking altogether.

“As big a part of socialising as it is, I couldn’t live with knowing I was putting myself in danger.”

In her twenties and early thirties, Cass, who has three children, Alex, 18, Oliver, 17 and Ellisia, 13, enjoyed many a night out with friends, and never found alcohol to cause an adverse reaction.

Then, in around 2011, she noticed that she’d start to feel warm on the top half of her body and legs when she’d had a drink.

Still, she wasn’t especially worried, until odd marks soon began to spring up on her skin all over her body, including her face.

She said: “It was almost like a burn. My skin wouldn’t be raised, like it would with a rash, but it’d be hot to touch and feel sensitive for days afterwards.

“Putting cold water on it wouldn’t help, as it just heated up.

“When it would happen, people would really stare, which would make me feel embarrassed and put a dampener on the night.”

At first, Cass, who is married to Stuart, 45, admitted that she didn’t put two and two together, assuming the reaction was down to skin products or washing powder she was using.

But, when it didn’t stop even after she changed products, she started keeping a closer eye on what exactly set her off – and after a few months, realised it only ever happened when she had been drinking.

“I went to the doctor in around 2012, and he agreed that it was something in alcohol causing an allergic reaction,” she said. “He then said to me to stop drinking.”

Cass continued: “I know it might sound silly, but it was such a big part of my life then – it was how I socialised with my friends. I worried I would lose all of that, so I tried to just press on and put up with it.

“I could never figure out a set trigger. If it was one particular type of alcohol, I’d have avoided that, but there was no pattern to it.”

But then, around two years later, Cass began to also experience shortness of breath, which would come on immediately after the rash and affect her for a few hours afterwards.

At her worst, she said she even struggled to speak properly.

Again, she sought medical help and a different doctor prescribed antihistamines to help calm the reaction whenever she suffers a flare-up.

Though the NHS recommends avoiding alcohol whilst taking antihistamines as it can make you feel sleepy, Cass takes non-drowsy tablets, and so said she has not had any adverse effects.

She has also cut down on drinking hugely, now only enjoying around five vodkas or gins on the odd weekend.

For the past year, Cass has not had an allergic reaction – which she believes is down to both drinking less and exercising much more.

She began running almost by accident after she suffered an unrelated hip injury during a Zumba class in 2012, and the physiotherapist who treated her suggested running would help keep her strength up once she had recovered.

Now Cass runs 10km at least three times a week, getting up at 5:30am to pound the streets, and has completed two half-marathons – with three more planned for 2019 – as well as a 10km and several 5km races.

The picture of health, she is sharing her story to encourage others struggling with painful reactions to seek medical help, and said: “My reactions were so unpredictable. I wouldn’t get them every time I drank, but they could come on out of nowhere – especially if I’d drank a couple of nights in a row.

“Now, though, I’m feeling much healthier and really hope that’s the end of it. Of course, if I have another, and my breathing is still affected, I will have no choice but to give up alcohol completely. For now, though, I’m enjoying running, cutting back on drinking and feeling great.”

Abbas Kanani, pharmacist at Chemist Click, said: “If you are experiencing symptoms such as wheezing, sneezing, coughing, itchy skin or feeling sick when you drink small amounts of alcohol, my advice would be to get an allergy test.

“Explain your symptoms to your GP who can organise this for you. In the meantime, it’s best to avoid alcoholic beverages altogether, as there is a possibility that they could cause a severe reaction which can be quite serious.

“If you do have a confirmed allergy to alcohol, it’s best to give up altogether. It seems quite tough, but I see an increased number of people wishing to give up alcohol for good these days, in search of a healthier lifestyle.”

NEW DELHI (AP) — It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young Indians are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration.

A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance.

The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, set up its website and social media accounts on Saturday. By Thursday, its Instagram page had amassed more than 15 million followers, far surpassing the 8.8 million followers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party on the platform.

“Nothing of this was intentional,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke told The Associated Press, saying the movement’s rise reflected mounting frustration among young Indians.

“It is the younger people who were actually very frustrated. They didn’t have any outlet. They were really angry at the government,” said Dipke, a political communications strategist and Boston University student.

The CJP emerged online after remarks by Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant triggered backlash among young Indians angered by unemployment, rising living costs and recent government exam paper leaks that have disrupted job recruitment drives.

During a hearing last week, Kant criticized what he described as “parasites” attacking institutions and compared some unemployed young people and activists to cockroaches.

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in the profession,” Kant said. He said that some turned to social media activism, journalism or public interest campaigns and “start attacking everyone.”

The comments quickly spread online, where many users saw them as dismissive. Kant later clarified that his remarks referred to people obtaining fraudulent degrees and said that he didn't intend to insult India’s youth.

But the controversy soon led to the creation of the parody CJP account on Instagram, which adopted the cockroach as its political symbol and began posting memes, mock campaign slogans and satirical commentary targeting Modi’s government.

Within days, it drew tens of thousands of online volunteers through a Google form submission, alongside endorsements from some opposition leaders.

“We have to understand that five years ago nobody was ready to speak up against Modi or the government. The times are changing,” said Dipke, who has previously worked with the Aam Aadmi Party, which emerged from India’s anti-corruption movement in 2012.

Dipke said that the CPJ isn't affiliated with any real political organization. But its rise echoes a broader trend across South Asia, where youths have played a central role in anti-government movements in recent years, including uprisings in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and unrest in Nepal.

“The youth are really frustrated and the government is not acknowledging their concerns,” Dipke said.

The pressures are especially acute in India, where youth makes up more than a quarter of the population, yet many young people face scarce job opportunities, persistent unemployment and growing frustration with traditional political parties.

Many young voters are also angry with Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party over issues including rising religious polarization, widening inequality and economic pressures.

The CJP leans heavily into self-mockery.

Its tongue-in-cheek membership criteria includes being unemployed, lazy, chronically online and capable of ranting professionally. Its manifesto uses satire to address several contentious issues in Indian politics, including opposition allegations of voter manipulation, criticism of the relationship between corporate media and the government, and the appointment of retired judges to official posts.

Some opponents, many of them Modi supporters, have dismissed it as online political gimmick aligned with the opposition, citing Dipke’s past association with the Aam Aadmi Party. They also say that the surge in popularity is likely to fade as quickly as it emerged, arguing that it's a digital campaign rather than a grassroots movement.

But Dipke said what began online was unlikely to remain confined to social media.

“This is the movement that has arrived in India … it will change the political discourse,” he said. “It will continue online, and if required it will also come on the ground.”

The movement has already begun to slowly spill offline, with some young volunteers appearing at protests dressed as cockroaches.

So has the apparent pushback.

On Thursday, Dipke wrote on X that the CJP’s account on the platform, which had around 200,000 followers, had been withheld in India, marking one of the first visible restrictions of the rapidly growing parody movement. The reason wasn't immediately clear.

Minutes later, Dipke announced a new account for the group, alongside a poster reading “Cockroach is back.”

The post added: “You thought you can get rid of us? Lol.”

A man visits the web page of the newly formed Cockroach Janta Party on a laptop in Dharamshala, India, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)