He wore gloves to eat out in restaurants and even gave up his holiday home in France because he found it impossible to carry out repairs.
Doctors tried the usual creams to get rid of the chronic eczema on Dominic’s hands and feet with no success.
But Dominic is finally free of the pain that plagued him after he agreed to become one of the first patients in the UK to try a new drug.
He claims it has virtually cured him of eczema pompholyx – a form of the condition which caused blisters to spread across his palms and feet.
The 66-year-old developed the condition after he retired and sold the Trafford Park fridge lorry business, Coolfreeze, he ran with his wife Janice.
Two years later his grandson Dominic was born.
“It was debilitating,” said Dominic, who lives on Davyhulme Road and has three grown-up daughters Lindsay, Rachel – the mother of his grandson – and Justine.
“I couldn’t hold Dominic when he was born as it started to get really bad at that point.
“I couldn’t pick him up and play with him when he was young.
“We did buy a holiday cottage in France and it was even one of the reasons we sold it was because I couldn’t do any work on the building.
“I ended up wearing gloves if we went for meals out because I didn’t want people to see my hands – I looked like a scaly reptile.”
Dominic turned to his GP for help, but the steroid creams often prescribed for eczema sufferers had little effect.
He was later sent to dermatologists at Withington Hospital who asked if he would like to test a tablet called Toctino – a new drug now available on the NHS.
“I was one of the first guinea pigs,” he added
“I thought it sounded like a 1950s dance hall but it cleared it up quite dramatically.”
“With the benefit of hindsight I think it could have helped knowing how to deal with the medical profession and my advice is get yourself referred to a dermatologist because your GP doesn’t know enough about the condition.
“It has had a huge impact on my life and has allowed me to do the things I couldn’t do before – like the huge water fight with my grandson in the garden I had during his last visit.” Tweet