A 59-year-old woman who has faced a lifetime of taunts from cruel trolls about hundreds of tumours covering her face will soon undergo life-changing surgery to transform her appearance.
Annetjie de Wit from Pretoria, South Africa, has long been afraid to go outside for fear of what people might say about her face, which is covered in lesions due to a rare genetic skin condition.
Ms De Wit suffers from neurofibromatosis, which affects between 1 in 3,000 and 1 in 5,000 people and causes non-cancerous tumours to grow along the nerves in the skin.
She described a “difficult” childhood, where the children asked her if she had leprosy and called her “horrible.”
Annetjie de Wit has been abused throughout her life by bullies who called her “ugly” but has now been offered the chance to treat the symptoms of her genetic condition which causes lesions to grow on her face.
As an adult, she decided to quit her job after a colleague made nasty comments towards her, causing her to be unable to concentrate.
But now, Mrs. De Wit The nightmare is almost over.
While there is no medication or treatment that can completely cure your chronic condition, cosmetic treatments can improve the appearance of the growths on your skin.
She has been chosen as a candidate on a television show that helps patients like her by offering them life-changing medical treatments.
She is currently undergoing intensive laser therapy with private aesthetician Dr. Riekie Smit to burn away the disfiguring lesions.
Dr Smit said: ‘Annetjie’s treatment involves a laser ablation procedure to burn away the lesions, accompanied by radiofrequency needle therapy to reduce the deep tissue from which they originate.
“We are trying to make most of the lesions smaller and those that do not respond will be surgically removed.”
She recalled being asked as a child if she had leprosy and why her sister had beautiful skin while she was “so ugly.”
The 59-year-old is now undergoing laser treatment to remove the growths from her face.
By November, about 80 percent of the tumors will be destroyed or significantly shrunk, Dr. Smit said.
Speaking about her battle with the disease, Ms De Wit said: ‘(As a child), I didn’t really have any friends.
‘I wanted so badly for someone to tell me I was beautiful or that they liked me, or that there was a boy who wanted to kiss me, like the other girls.
-But who would want to kiss me? I took many different medications, but nothing helped.
‘My mother spent a fortune on beauty products to hide the lesions, but they didn’t help much either.
The treatment is expected to produce an 80 per cent improvement in the appearance of Ms De Wit’s skin.
‘I accepted it and thought there was nothing we could do about it.
‘I became a recluse because it was not pleasant to go out, not even to the shops.
“Do you know how it feels when people stare at you? It’s not nice at all.”
Desperate for a solution, she applied to take part in the makeover programme, called Dr. Nou! earlier this year after seeing an advert calling for participants.
“I thought, ‘Let me just run and see what happens. I have nothing to lose,'” De Wit said. “I didn’t think I would make it onto the shortlist.”
She “can’t wait” to show off her new face in public.
“I’m actually a sociable person, I like to talk, even if it doesn’t seem like it,” he said.
“When December comes, I’ll be going to the stores myself to do my Christmas shopping. I can’t wait.”