Teasing at school made me cry

JESS STALLEY, 25, is a tech consultant who is from Cambridgeshire.

WHEN I was about 13, my family would nag me about slouching like a typical teenager. But when I tried to sit straight it was painful. An X-ray showed that my spine at the top was bent at a 45-degree angle. I was diagnosed with Scheuermann’s kyphosis, where the vertebrae form in a triangular rather than a rectangular shape. My nickname at school was the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which made me cry. It was probably more noticeable because I was a competitive swimmer and always in a swimsuit. At first, the specialist suggested I should wear a back brace day and night. But a couple of months later, another scan revealed that my spine had now curved by 90 degrees. I knew it was getting worse, as the brace was becoming more uncomfortable and I was in more pain.

In 2009 I had spinal fusion surgery to prevent any more bending, as it could have affected my lung capacity. Several of my vertebrae were fused together with titanium rods.

Then, in 2012, the disc below my last fused vertebrae collapsed, so I had another operation to extend the fusion. The scar is about 18 in long.

I also have an 8 in scar under my left arm and a 3½in one above my left hip, where they inserted a metal cage to replace the collapsed disc.

But my spine is now completely straight and I always get comments about how great my posture is.

My scars are very neat, and provided I don’t have a suntan — because the scars stay pale — they are not that noticeable. When I was younger I was very selfconscious of the scarring, purely because of the previous bullying. But I grew in confidence, and by the time of my school leavers’ party, I even wore a backless dress.

I wouldn’t be the person I am today without my scars.

EXPERT COMMENT: Dermatologist Dr Justine Hextall says: ‘Cutting through the skin removes the layer of melanocytes — cells that produce pigment. With time, melanocytes migrate from surrounding skin to a scar, and one common issue with scars is that they have too little or too much pigmentation.

‘Silica gel is the most effective topical treatment for scar-healing — keeping the wound hydrated reduces the body’s signalling for more collagen formation.

‘I always advise patients that it can take a year to 18 months for a scar to heal properly.’