Telltale spots had appeared in September, first on her own body, later on her son’s and daughter’s. Two rounds of topical treatment followed, alongside a frantic maelstrom of laundry. They were washing clothes and bedding after every use, as well as steaming mattresses, duvets and sofas, churning through hundreds of disposable gloves, “boiling the kids’ crocs”, and quarantining anything else they could think of in bin bags. When all those measures failed, it was time for the nuclear option: they took the kids out of school for a week and rented a caravan near their home in south-west England. They changed into fresh clothes at the door of their home, then travelled by steam-cleaned car, before repeating treatment for a third time. A fresh teddy was needed for their daughter on arrival, and a replacement before leaving.