A teenage girl nicknamed 'spotty dog' by school bullies has embraced the hundreds of birthmarks that cover her entire face and body. 19-year-old Ciera Swaringen, of Rockwell, North Carolina, USA was born with mole-like birthmarks that spread from her head to her toes. Ciera's rare skin condition affects just one in 500,000 people and covers 70 percent of her body - with the largest mark stretching from her lower thighs to her navel. Since a child, the pretty teen has endured cruel taunts from strangers, but has now grown to love her unique appearance. She says: “Teenage boys are usually the first ones to comment when they see me. “They say things like, ‘You look like you’re dirty, take a wash.’
A baby girl has become the youngest British patient to receive a life-saving cardiac operation after her heart swelled to twice its normal size within days of her birth .
SAILING peacefully across a river in the early morning light, a fisherman in China keeps a 1000 year old tradition alive .
A woman has shed half her body weight after undergoing a gastric sleeve op to shrink her stomach .
Pint- size Maci Winters only has one wish this Christmas - to be as tall as the other boys and girls on the school playground .
Armed with a snorkel, flippers and her skimpy bikini, an intrepid female free diver swims alongside an array of reef sharks .
THIS may look like a dolphin through jumping hoops, but it is in fact nothing more than a clever 3D pencil drawing .
Lying angelically with a range of expressions etched on their tiny faces, little bundles of joy are innocently captured in their first few days in these adorable photographs .
BEHIND the doors of this building, with its stacks of mattresses and discarded remains of wheelchairs, lies another victim of austerity cuts .
A woman with a rare condition that means she collapses every time she laughs fears she may have passed the rare illness onto her young son .
A mother-of-one has revealed how a neighbour’s friend ‘mauled’ her face, leaving her scarred for life .