WORLD Vitiligo Day is officially celebrated on June 25 each year with the sole purpose being to widely broaden the importance of raising awareness, educating others, and highlighting the challenges people with vitiligo face.

The theme for this year’s celebration is ‘Learning to live with vitiligo’. Vitiligo is a skin disorder that affects one to two per cent of the population. It is a lifelong disorder that causes patches of discolouration in different areas of the body as well as a total loss of skin colour. Other symptoms include hair turning prematurely grey or white, and eyelashes or eyebrows losing colour and turning white. Non-segmental vitiligo and segmental vitiligo are the two main types of the disorder.

World Vitiligo Day was first celebrated in 2011 in Lagos, Nigeria, and is also known as Vitiligo Awareness Day or Vitiligo Purple Fun Day, as purple is the official colour representing the condition. Michael Jackson was one of the most well known celebrities who suffered from this condition. He passed away on June 25, 2009, thus World Vitiligo Day is observed on June 25 in his honour.

Locally, several individuals also have the condition and are raising awareness and public education around it. One such person is entrepreneur and vitiligo advocate Sara Stanford. Below she shares her story, ‘Learning to live with vitiligo’ with Jamaica Observer’s Your Health Your Wealth:

Vitiligo is not just something I have, it is something I am.

Vitiligo is a skin condition where the body no longer produces melanin, resulting in loss of pigmentation. Most people with vitiligo will notice white patches on their skin over time. The patches are most commonly seen on the face, around the eyes and mouth, and on a person’s extremities and joints like hands, fingers, feet, elbows etc.

Vitiligo is not physically painful but for many it can be very emotionally difficult to manage. Vitiligo is not contagious in any way shape or form. While the actual cause of vitiligo has yet to be determined, it is said that oftentimes it can be brought on by stress.

I’ve had vitiligo 39 years now; I was diagnosed at the age of eight. I was teased and ridiculed for years but the strength my vitiligo has given me hasn’t allowed me to remember or dwell on those difficulties.

I will admit that it was hard going through my childhood and teenage years being different, not seeing anyone that looked like me, constantly having to answer the question…“What’s wrong with your skin?“

However, I was extremely lucky to have parents that encouraged me and drilled into me that I was not defined by my skin but rather the person I was on the inside.

I am proud of my vitiligo. It has given me strength, it has taught me perseverance, and it has helped me to remember to always be kind to people — especially when they may be just a little bit different.

When you meet me, you will see my skin — you will have no choice — but when you leave me you will remember me, not my skin.

So the next time you see someone with vitiligo, don’t stare, don’t scorn, just remember that each person in this world is beautifully and uniquely made.