A devoted mum of eight died at just 47 years old after spending years suffering from a rare disease. Nicola Kilby was 'glamorous and outgoing' but due to her illness - which altered her appearance - avoided taking photos and refused to look in the mirror.
In the last few years, Nicola didn't leave her home because she was so frightened of strangers judging her appearance and staring at her. The loving mum suffered from Wegener’s Granulomatosis, which is an inflammatory blood vessel disease.
The condition attacks the ears, nose, sinuses, kidneys and lungs and, in Nicola's case, left her deaf in both ears, damaged her soft pallet to the point that she struggled to talk, and caused her nose to collapse, Birmingham Live reports. Now her son Kieran, aged 25 and from Sutton Coldfield, hopes to raise awareness of GPA, and is fundraising towards his mum's funeral costs and for Vasculitis UK research.
He said: "My mum was an amazing person, she put everyone before herself. She was very outgoing, she was one of the most glamorous people I've ever met.
"She adored her children and her grandchildren and gave anyone who came through the door the warmest welcome, like they were family. She was a very strong woman and even when she was in the worst pain imaginable, she'd never let on. She didn't want to subject anyone else to what she was going through."
Nicola lived in Cirencester in the Cotswolds with her husband-of-ten-years, Kevin. She leaves behind eight children aged between eight and 27.
Of his mum's battle with GPA, hotel worker Kieran said: "It's one of the most horrendous things I can imagine anyone going through. One of the things my mum struggled with most was how dramatically her appearance changed. It ate away at her nose, she became deaf in both ears and she lost a lot of her soft pallet so she couldn't talk properly anymore.
"Something minor like a cold would really affect her, to the point she could end up in hospital. It made the covid pandemic very difficult for her.
"The doctors originally said she could live for ten years with it, but it affected her very rapidly. It got to the point where she couldn't even use the stairs, she was so weak.
"It was hard for my mum because she didn't leave the house for years. She was so self-conscious about people staring at her.
"Even looking in a mirror was too difficult for her because of the damage it did to her nose. None of us have any pictures of my mum from the past five years because she wouldn't allow it - not even with the grandkids on her birthday."
Kieran recalled his mum's reaction to an episode of 'This Time Next Year', with Davina McCall, where a woman from Redditch with vasculitis was given a prosthetic nose. "All my mum ever wanted was a normal nose," he said.
"It was weird when she saw that episode on TV because most people have never heard of GPA, it's not a word you hear often like cancer. My mum started asking questions about prosthetics. We all started looking into getting her a nose for Christmas, but all the clinics we could find were in America or they were extortionate."
He added: "Not only did it affect her physically but it had a huge impact on her mental health as well. Because she wouldn't leave the house, she became very isolated.
"Me and my siblings bought her a French bulldog to keep her company. It got to the point that she was so lonely that she started accepting random friend requests from strangers on Facebook so she had some friends to speak to. That's something that really stuck with me.
