A woman who has been treated like a leper all her life due to a rare skin condition is about to have her world completely changed.
Annetjie de Wit is often scared to go out in public for fear of how people will react to her face, which is covered in lesions.
The 59-year-old suffers from a debilitating genetic skin condition called neurofibromatosis that causes non-cancerous tumours to grow along the nerves of her skin.
Her childhood was difficult with other kids asking is he has leprosy and why her sister, Fransien Niemand, now aged 65, had beautiful skin while her sibling was “so hideous”.
As an adult, Annetjie was once told she was “too ugly” to work at the company she’d applied to.
A few years ago, her husband, Gert de Wit, who saw “her inner self” also tragically passed away from thyroid cancer – making her even more reluctant to go out in public.
But after nearly six decades of daily challenges, Annetjie’s nightmare is nearly over.
She has been chosen as a candidate on a TV show that focuses on assisting patients like her – and she is due to receive laser treatment that will transform her appearance.
“I can’t wait to be out in public without people making remarks about me,” she told Need To Know.
“[Growing up], I didn’t really have friends.
“I so badly wanted 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 was on many different medications but nothing helped.
“My mum spent a fortune on beauty products to hide the lesions but they didn’t really help either.
“I accepted it and thought there was nothing we could really do about it.
“I became a recluse because it wasn’t pleasant to go out, not even to the shops.
“Do you know how it feels when people stare at you?
“It’s not nice, man. Not at all.”
Annetjie, who is from Pretoria, South Africa, recently applied to be on a show called Dr. Nou! after spotting an advert calling for participants for its upcoming season, which is set to air in November.
In the series, Dr Riekie Smit and Dr Jurgens Grové work together to improve patients’ appearances and their self-esteem.
She said: “I thought, ‘Let me apply and see what happens’ – I had nothing to lose.
“I worried that I wouldn’t make the short list.
“There were so many others who also want to be helped.”
Annetjie was chosen to take part in the show and her transformation is already underway.
She has begun laser treatment in Pretoria with Dr Smit, who has a private aesthetic medicine practice.
Some of her facial tissue has been analysed and the doctor said that “after all of the treatments [she] will be about 80% prettier”.
However, there is no medication or treatment that can fully cure her chronic condition.
Dr Smit said: “Annetjie’s treatment involves a laser ablation procedure to burn the lesions, accompanied by radiofrequency with needles to reduce the deep tissue from where they originate.
“We’re trying to make most of the lesions smaller and those that don’t respond will be surgically removed.”
Annetjie added: “I’m actually a social butterfly, a people person.
“I do like to chat, even if it doesn’t seem like it.”
Her new look will be shared with the country as she undergoes cosmetic and dental procedures in the VIA reality series Dr. Nou!.
She is hopeful for the future and is particularly looking forward to going Christmas shopping.
She said: “When December comes, I’ll go to the shops myself to do my Christmas shopping!”
READ MORE: ‘I thought I was just getting old – then I was left almost paralysed due to CANCER’
