BPES in Aussie Mainstream - though slightly tacky - Mag

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

This was in the Australian Edition of 'New Idea' and I thought I'd

share it with all of you.

Much to my dismay, I don't own a scanner and my digital camera

wouldn't take pictures clear enough to read the writing. So, I've

typed it all out, but it's all copyrighted to the NI people and all

that jazz. (Don't sue me, I'm poor.)

The article isn't particularly technical or enlightening to any of

us, but it's the first one I've seen about BPES in... well, a long

time. Enjoy.

Oh - and in case any of the Aussie raise their eyebrows at me...

This was sent to me, I didn't buy the magazine!

Ky

***

SAVING FACE - Bianca Moon has endured a lot - facial disfigurement,

bullying and a car accident - to become the role model she is today.

After years of painful surgeries and schoolyard bullying, Bianca

Moon has a huge reason to smile when she recently met her idol

Lang from `The Bold and the Beautiful.'

The aspiring actress and singer quizzed , who has played

on the soap for 20 years, and filled her in on Truly

Beautiful, the charity she founded for people with craniofacial

disfigurements.

Eighteen-year-old Bianca was born with blepharophimosis, a condition

where sufferers have no eyelid muscles, very wide set eyes and a

flattened nose bridge. After four operations, the condition was

corrected as much as possible by the time Bianca was five. However,

Bianca was left with wide-set small eyes, which led to relentless

bullying.

`When I was 11, that was the worst year of mu life. One girl told me

she was going to push me under a bus and I always used to get rude

racial remarks. Because of my eyes, people assume I'm Asian,

although that doesn't bother me,' she says.

After learning she's most likely infertile due to the ovarian

complications, fate again took a cruel twist when Bianca was

involved in a care accident three years ago. The crash brought on a

previously undiagnosed condition called Chiari malformation, which

produced cysts in her spinal column. After lifesaving surgery, the

teen was bedridden for almost six months.

`I couldn't believe my luck,' she says. `The only thing I had to

look forward to was watching The Bold And The Beautiful every day.'

says she's amazed by Bianca's fighting spirit.

`It's really inspiring she wants to help others,'

says, `She's such a beautiful young woman, she's really wise for her

age and has a real motivation to make a difference.

admires Bianca's confidence in her looks - something she

didn't always possess herself.

`Everybody nitpicks themselves about their body and their face. It's

hard for me sometimes because my face is on TV and I notice things I

don't like/. You have to forget about that because it's not what

matters - it's what you contribute to the world.'

Through her charity work Bianca has met other high profile

celebrities, such as Joan Rivers and Bette Midler, and Cher is a big

supporter of craniofacial endeavours following her role in the 1985

film Mask.

Among Bianca's aims is getting schoolyard bullying outlawed and

hosting Sydney's Truly Beautiful Masked Ball later this year to

raise money for the charity.

`Our slogan is: " Don't hate me, `cause I'm beautiful. " People with

facial disfigurements may look different, but they're still

intellectual, beautiful human beings.'

• For more information about the ball, log on to

www.trulybeautiful.org

FACING THE FACTS:

- The Australian Craniofacial Unit in Adelaide is the country's

leading facility devoted to treating facial disfigurements, and is

the world leader in education, research and treatment.

- The most common conditions treated at the unit include cleft lip

and cleft palate, severe deformities of the face and skull and

disfigurement from accidents.

- blepharophimosis is hereditary, and it can lead to infertility in

some sufferers.

- If a woman with the condition is able to bear a child, there's a

50% chance their offspring will also be born with the condition.

- Log on to www.craniofacial.com.au for more information.