Love Disfigure: Women embrace burns and skin conditions with This Morning swimsuit catwalk
The women are part of the Love Disfigure campaign that encourages women to embrace their disfigurements
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Your support makes all the difference.Women living with disfigurements held a swimsuit show showing off their scars on This Morning as part of a campaign that encourages people to embrace their scars.
The women donned swimsuits as part of the Love Disfigure campaign, created by Sylvia Mac, as a way of raising awareness and offering support for those with disfigurements who may not feel confident in their appearance.
Mac, a burn survivor and former competitive swimmer, knows what it is like to feel self-conscious about your appearance after suffering serious burns at age three - but decided she had spent enough time hiding her body after years of struggling with anxiety, depression and PTSD from her accident.
Other women who joined Mac in proudly showing off her figure on This Morning included burn survivor Kizzy Brocnall, Ahila Jegerajan who suffers from psoriasis, Chloe Rose, who has scars from when she used to self-harm, and Corinne Cazeneuve, who accidentally burned herself with drain cleaner.
Many of the women discussed how the campaign has encouraged them to proudly embrace their appearance - after years of covering their scars.
For Rose, this has meant wearing short sleeves instead of covering up her scarred arms.
And for Jegerajan, whose psoriasis affects her entire body, the campaign has helped her start “living the life I want to lead.”
Founder Mac also started a swimming club for people for disfigurements, which burn-survivor Cazeneuve credited with helping her become more confident, and has held swimsuit photo shoots in the past.
In addition to helping other people living with disfigurements learn to love themselves, Love Disfigure also aims to challenge the fashion industry and other industries to be more inclusive of people with scars - and viewers loved the message.
“Very moving watching #ThisMorning it’s refreshing and empowering to see these women be their authentic selves and be proud of their scars. Amazing strong women! Be proud of your natural self!” tweeted one person.
Another wrote: “Just watched you brave ladies there. What an inspiration you are! I have scars too and only learned to embrace them in my 40’s. Keep inspiring us please.”
Ultimately, Mac wants those with scars to know: “There is no need to hide your disfigurement. Our disfigurement is just an extra part of our uniqueness.”
“We are beautiful too,” Mac said on This Morning’s Love the Skin You’re In segment.
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