A mum who was badly bullied as a young girl due to the port-wine stain birthmark on her face says her fiancé has never seen her without make-up on.
Emily Hallett, 33, was born with a birthmark covering nearly half of her face and has since spent her entire adult life painstakingly concealing it beneath a thick layer of foundation.
The childminder, from Leatherhead, Surrey, is so self-conscious about her birthmark that she won't let her fiancé, Adam, 33, see what she looks like without make-up on.
The pair have been in a relationship for five years, however, Emily will still make sure to wake up before Adam does to reapply her foundation.
Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here.
Port-wine stains happen when small blood vessels, known as capillaries, become overly dilated, giving a person's skin a reddish colour.
The mum-of-three was badly taunted at school, with bullies saying her face looked as though it had been burnt.
She even transferred schools but struggled to make friends due to her low confidence.
Emily said: "It bothered me when I was young. I hated the school that I was in. They would say anything, my mum said they'd laugh, stare and call me names. They'd call me burn face. It was mainly the boys. I was quite affected by it.
"I didn't have a lot of friends, I just went with anyone who took to me.
"I didn't want to talk to people because I didn't know what people thought. My mum would tell me I had a backbone and to ignore it. I just kept myself to myself".
She remains badly affected by the ordeal that, to this day, and always feels aware of her birthmark.
The mum admitted that if she sees men looking she will just assume it's because of her mark rather than because they find her attractive.
And she still faces blunt comments from thoughtless strangers who will ask Emily whether she's been burnt.
She recalled: "I get random people saying that it's an awful burn or asking what I've done to my face."
Emily underwent laser treatment from the age of six months to 14 to help lighten the colouring and prevent the mark from growing or becoming raised.
She continued: "My partner hasn't seen me without make-up. He knows it's there because you can still see it with make-up.
"I don't take my make-up off and I top it up constantly throughout the day. When I shower in the evenings, I put it back on before I go to bed. I get up first to do my make-up in the morning but if Adam is having a lie-in, I go downstairs to do it."
As the NHS class such procedures as cosmetic, Emily has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for a further eight treatments, costing £600 each, as the NHS class the procedure as cosmetic.
You can make a donation to Emily's laser treatment here
Do you have a body image-related story to tell? We pay for stories. Email us at julia.banim@reachplc.com
