I was 17yo and the school's summer swimming carnival came to be and everyone had to enter at least one event, unless excused under medical grounds ... of which acne was not one.

Now I could swim a bit, but I had a rotten case of acne over my shoulders and neck especially.

To make matters worse, back then there were no special swim shirts for sun protection and the wearing of a tee-shirt in the water would have been totally laughable.

I had no choice ... I was going to have to swim a couple of events with only swimming trunks and therefore show all the school my zits!

How very embarrassing!

Even when waiting to swim I tried to cover up with a towel (because back then everyone worshipped the sun and sunburn was part of life) which was awkward but at least a little consolling to myself.

There was one other bloke with acne similar to mine that day, but that didn't make feel any better about myself.