Chloe, who has had a port wine stain on her face her whole life, just brought a TV audience to tears
THERE wasn’t a dry eye in the house when brave Chloe told her story to Karl Stefanovic on ‘This Time Next Year’ last night.
THERE wasn’t a dry eye in the house when brave Chloe Towney told her story on Channel Nine’s This Time Next Year last night.
Chloe, 16, was born with a large port wine stain on her face, resulting in years of hardship. She was endlessly teased at school, so badly that at one stage she had no choice but to drop out.
A year ago she pledged to the show’s host Karl Stefanovic that in one year’s time she would “like how I look in the mirror”.
The big reveal went to air last night and Chloe’s dramatically different appearance bought Stefanovic to tears.
During the year, Chloe went through 13 painful laser treatments to remove the birth mark.
“It feels like someone is burning your face to the point you can feel it in your bones,” the year 11 student explained to Karl.
“I’ve had 13 laser sessions,” she said.
“Everytime I went back, I didn’t want to do it,” she admitted before adding that her family kept her motivated and strong.
When Chloe walked through the doors, she looked radiant and Karl was left stunned and speechless.
Not only did she achieve her goal of liking her appearance, Chloe’s self-esteem is better than it has ever been.
“I love myself,” she told Karl. “This is the happiest I’ve been in my life.”
Here, Dr Sam Hay explains more about birthmarks to Kidspot.
So what are birthmarks? How common are they? And as parents, when should you get them treated?
Birthmarks take many shapes sizes and types.
When a baby is first born you might see a salmon patch. These are very common — 40% of babies get them. They appear as thin, flat, light pink or red parts of skin, usually on the nape of the neck (a ‘stork bite’) or on the forehead between the eyebrows (an ‘angel’s kiss’) or on the eyelids. Most simply disappear themselves in the first year of life, but stork bites can hang around into adulthood. No treatment is needed for these patches.
Other babies might have a haemangioma. They can sit on top of the skin or deep within the skin. The ones that sit on top look kind-of-like fruit — little raspberries. During the first year of baby’s life, both can tend to get bigger, and tend to cause a lot of angst for parents. Thankfully most are completely harmless and become flat by the time your little one is aged ten and maybe even sooner. A dermatologist can help with management options.
In Chloe’s case, her birthmark is known as a port wine stain.
Port wine stains arise from malformed and dilated blood vessels in the skin. They might start off flat, red or even blue and can get darker with age. They are always present at birth, vary in size from a tiny spot to covering a whole limb, and they grow in proportion with kids as they grow. About three in every 1000 Aussie babies have one.
Just like Chloe, the face is the most commonly effected area of the body
We don’t really know exactly why they occur, genetics do play a part, Unlike some of the other types of birthmarks, port wine stains won’t go away by themselves. Through puberty, as a reaction to all the hormones flying around, the port wine stains do become more purple and can even thicken up.
What we do know — without a shadow of a doubt — is that they are not caused by anything a mother did during pregnancy!
So what can I do about them?
If baby has a port wine stain, the first thing to do is not panic!
Your GP should get you off to a good dermatologist to confirm exactly what the spot is, who may organise a few tests or an ultrasound — to see if the spot extends deeper. Normally there are no other related problems with port wine stains, however, there are a handful of rare syndromes that need to be excluded.
Laser Therapy
Laser therapy is currently the best treatment available for port wine stains.
Laser is a high-energy light source that targets blood vessels. It destroys the blood vessels that make up the birthmark. But it does all of that without injuring the skin on top.
When should treatment start?
“The earlier in life you treat, the better the response” explains Chloe’s dermatologist, Dr Li Cheung Wong, from SydneySkin.com.au.
“However, because it is a painful procedure, young kids need a general anaesthetic for each treatment, so you need to balance the risks. Bottom line is, we get the best results if we treat kids before they start school”.
What sort of response can you expect?
80% of people will get some sort of improvement after an initial eight treatments, but sadly, 10% may not get any change at all. And frustratingly, treatment can plateau — the laser just stops having the same effect.
But there is hope. “Lasers are improving all the time” Dr Wong stresses.
“Every year there are new lasers coming out, so if the area doesn’t improve, there’s always hope in the future — so please keep visiting your dermatologist for check ups.”
Why was it so challenging for Chloe?
The pain from each treatment was clear for us all to see, but Chloe was unbelievably brave.
Then there’s the swelling that lasts for days after each treatment — always hard to cope with for a young lady trying to get on with their school life, forever fearful of others’ comments.
But the biggest challenge for Chloe was the fear of the unknown.
Would she get any benefit at all? The psychological impact of waiting for the end result is challenging, especially for a young lady dealing with such a visible problem.
What do people worry about?
Pain, swelling, and uncertainty around results are the main issues faced by patients getting laser therapy for their port wine stains.
However, Dr Wong explains, “Lots of patients worry about damage to underlying big blood vessels. The laser only penetrates about two to three mm under the skin, so the big deep blood vessels are very safe. Also, there’s no scarring risk to the skin”.
Is laser the only option?
Firstly it’s really important to protect the port wine stain with lots of sunscreen.
High quality cover-up makeup definitely helps, so chat to a good make-up consultant for options that suit.
A plastic surgeon can offer surgical treatments for smaller, thicker, or bumpier lesions.
This article originally appeared on Kidspot.
