Brave woman with thousands of tumours on her skin reveals how she refuses to hide condition
Gail Applegren has had neurofibromatosis her whole life and despite her illness being confused for a 'contagious disease', she refuses to hide it
A BRAVE woman with thousands of tumours all over her body refuses to hide them, despite her condition being confused for a ‘contagious disease’.
Gail Applegren, 57, from Edmonton in Canada, has battled with neurofibromatosis her whole life but believes the disorder makes her ‘special’ and ‘unique’.
Up until the age of 12, Gail only had one large tumour on her chest and ‘café au lait’ spots before the ‘bumps’ on her body began to vastly multiply.
Growing up, Gail says bullies would tease her but even as an adult she claims people have asked her not to swim in public pools, touch fruit and have even shied away from sitting next to her on planes.
But that hasn’t stopped the former social worker proudly showing off her ‘bumps’ to educate others about her illness.
She said: “I cannot even guess how many bumps I have. They are in the thousands and thousands.
“My entire torso has wall-to-wall bumps. There are so many they are growing on each other or out of each other.
“When I look on my stomach and others range from the size of my first of my stomach and one on my back and tall bone that was twice my fist size.
“I don’t cover up, I wear sleeveless shirts and tops. I’m a regular person, I laugh and cry, like you or anybody else.
“When I look in the mirror, I don’t see neurofibromatosis, I see Gail looking back at me.
“I see my smile and my bright eyes, that’s the way I’ve always been.”
Gail says she relishes people asking questions about neurofibromatosis.
She said: “I love people asking about it, I want to tell them. Seeing me it’s very obvious that I don’t look like a lot of other people.
Prior to 2010, Gail believed she was ‘too busy’ for love until meeting Tim, but the pair are not celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary.
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Despite the couple having to contend with pain from the disorder, they try not to let it negatively affect their lives.
“I live every day to the fullest,” said Gail “as I get older the more complications I have with NF but I’m a happy and active person.”
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