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Real life story: My black skin turned white
Born black but a rare skin disorder - vitiligo, same ailment Michael Jackson had - changed a woman's identity.
A mum-of-one who was born black has told how her skin turned white. Pale blemishes started appearing on Darcel De Vlugt’s body when she was just 3.
Doctors diagnosed stress-related vitiligo two years later, stemmed from missing her father, who worked away a lot.
The condition, said to have affected Michael Jackson, causes the skin to lose pigment. However, it’s incredibly rare to affect the whole body.
“I was given medicine, but the patches kept spreading,” Darcel, 30, remembers. “Soon they covered my legs, tummy and arms.
"I was so self-conscious, I tried to hide the condition with long sleeves and trousers.
But when they started appearing on my face when I was 12, there was nothing I could do. “As a teenager I just wanted to be like everyone else.”
Instead, friends began to shun Darcel and cruel bullies teased her that her patchy skin made her look like a cow or a Dalmatian.
“I was offered skin bleaching to make me all one colour,” Darcel says. “But it’s irreversible and can have side effects or look uneven. I wanted to remain natural.”
By the time Darcel moved to London to study, age 18, her skin was completely white.
“As I started university, it didn’t look like I had a medical condition anymore,” she says. “I felt strange though, like I’d lost my identity.
"I didn’t know if I was a black girl or a white one. As groups formed I felt totally left out. I did try to explain it to people, but no-one understood.”
After graduating, Darcel started working as a fashion designer. “It’s obviously an industry where everyone cares about looks, but I love fashion and was determined not to let my condition hold me back,” she says.
Although vitiligo, which affects one in 100 people of any race or colour, is hereditary, her Trinidadian parents, Peter and Patricia, and brother, Dion, are all untouched.
In February 2010, Darcel moved back home to Trinidad, and within weeks she’d met her partner, David.
“I told him about my vitiligo by sending him a link to a TV interview I’d done about it,” Darcel says. “He was so supportive and said it didn’t matter to him.
“When I fell pregnant that December, I felt delighted but worried. “I couldn’t help panicking about what my baby’s life would be like if he or she had the condition too.”
Her little girl, Daeja-Maria was born in August 2011, and so far she’s showing no signs of vitiligo. “If it does happen, I’ll be her rock, like Mum was for me,” Darcel says.
Because her skin has no melanin and is vulnerable to sunburn, she has to constantly smother herself in factor 100 cream. Shockingly, Darcel still gets nasty comments from strangers.
“People laugh, ‘Go and get a tan,’ or ‘Oh my God, you’re so white.’ I wish they would ask questions if they’re curious. Not just yell at me!”
To raise awareness of vitiligo, Darcel has started a blog. “I’ve accepted my new skin colour and I’m not embarrassed anymore,” she says.
“It’s just skin at the end of the day. And it’s part of who I am.”
http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/wellbeing/rea...e_plusone_share
Edited by ArcoIris - 2/4/2018, 03:19
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