THREE layers of a woman's skin peeled off after she suffered an allergic reaction allegedly caused by her new leather sofas.

Jane Morrison claims she endured six months of agony and had to live with a red rash and blistering skin caused, she now believes, by the sofas.

She said doctors could not find out what was behind the rash and it was not until she read news reports about batches of sofas covered in a fungicide causing skin complaints that realised what might be the root of her discomfort.

The 55-year-old is now one of scores of people across the country seeking compensation.

“I was covered in a red, itchy rash, with painful blisters,” said Mrs Morrison, of Hanbury Road, Chaddesden. “I didn't know where to turn as I couldn't figure out why I had this terrible reaction.

“The sofas were the last thing on my mind.”

Mrs Morrison, who works as an employment coordinator for people with learning difficulties, bought the Linkwise sofa from Land of Leather last May.

It was delivered in August after Mrs Morrison and husband Anthony, 61, had some rooms replastered.

“It started with itchy patches on my back, which I thought was eczema or perhaps something I had got from the sauna at the gym,” said Mrs Morrison.

“I stopped going to the gym, which I like to do to relax, because I thought it looked so ugly and did not want people to see it.

“But it got worse and worse and I was having to get up in the night to have a cold shower to cool it down.”

At one stage, the rash got infected and Mrs Morrison's doctor prescribed her a course of antibiotics.

“It got to the point where I thought that, if I bent down, it would crack open,” she said.

“While I was on the antibiotics, three layers of skin peeled off. Each time, it was just as bad underneath.

After seeing the news reports about problems with other sofas, Mrs Morrison called the store, who arranged for it to be taken away and replaced with a different type.

“As soon as the sofa left the house, the rash went away,” she said.

Andrew Oxley, of Ashton Morton Slack solicitors, the firm handling Mrs Morrison's case, said: “She has a strong claim that the affected sofas are unsafe and, therefore, defective in the eyes of the law.”

A spokesman from Land of Leather said they had received more than 100 complaints and that all Linkwise products had been withdrawn from their stores in September 2007.

He said: “Due to legal proceedings, which are at a very early stage, we are unable to comment further.”