Birthmark girl’s brave stand
Chantel has accepted the port-wine birthmark on her face – although some days are tougher than others
SHE keeps her face down when she’s out in public but even so she can feel strangers’ eyes boring into her. When that happens she turns the other cheek – literally. Because the dark, almost purple birthmark is less noticeable on her right side. “Nobody really knows how to handle me,” Chantel Struwig (18) says. “My friends say they don’t even see it anymore but I know they do. And it will be there forever.”
When we meet the teen at her family home in Doornpoort, Pretoria, she’s shy initially, her eyes downcast. But when she lifts her head, the first thing you see is a pair of clear blue eyes and a lovely wide smile. Only then do you notice the portwine stain covering most of her face.
She has a love-hate relationship with the birthmark, Chantel says. “God couldn’t decide on a single shade, so he blessed me with two,” she wrote next to an Instagram pic of her reddish-purple blemish.
A caption alongside another Insta pic reads, “If you accept yourself, the world will accept you.”
Although she tries to avoid the stares of strangers on the street, Chantel bravely shows her face on social media – and it’s helped her become an inspiration to her 10 000 followers.
She says knowing she’s not the only person on Earth with the condition has given her the courage to do so, along with a desire to raise awareness of the reality of people living with port-wine stains.
Chantel was prompted to go public on social media after discovering the Instagram profile of Paige Lauren Billiot, an American actress and filmmaker, during International Day of Awareness for Vascular Birthmarks on 15 May two years ago.
Paige (now 26), who has a similar birthmark, was promoting her campaign Flawless Affect, aimed at empowering anyone living with “flaws” of one type or another.
Chantel decided she too would accept her birthmark and display it with pride and asked her mom, Nicky (46), to organise a photoshoot. And instead of trying to hide the mark, Chantel decorated it with glitter.
“People are going to stare anyway, so I may as well make it worthwhile,” she says, flicking back her long blonde hair.
On International Day of Awareness for Vascular Birthmarks last year, she went one step further: she drew the outline of her birthmark in red lipliner and shared it with her fans.
Chantel took the overwhelmingly positive reaction to her pictures as a sign that people like the fact that she’s “different”.
Though she says it’s not easy living with it day in and day out, she tries to stay positive, LEFT: Chantel Struwig doesn’t allow the birthmark on her face to hold her back. RIGHT: On International Day of Awareness for Vascular Birthmarks in 2017 she decided to show the mark to the world and decorated it with glitter. FAR RIGHT: On the same day last year, she showed off her birthmark once again, this time having outlined it in red lipliner. even on bad days. “If I can deal with this,” she says, gesturing towards her birthmark, “I can help other people realise they can handle a few pimples.”
PEOPLE have been staring at Chantel since day one. When she was a baby strangers would stop her mom and ask her why she didn’t keep her daughter at home “like other kids like this”. Nicky recalls her own struggles when the youngest of her two daughters was born. “I kept asking myself, ‘What should I do? Should I hide my child or show her to the world?’”
Nicky says she wondered if the stain might’ve been caused by something she did during pregnancy. After all, her firstborn, Nicole (24), had no blemishes.
Even more distressing was when doctors told her the birthmark could be a sign of Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS), a rare condition that can cause epilepsy. But a battery of tests ruled out that concern.
In the end the decision about what to do with her baby wasn’t that hard at all. “I took her with me everywhere – I wanted to show her to the world,” says Nicky, who works for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
“I think if my mom had decided to hide me away, I wouldn’t be the person I am
today,” Chantel says.
Whenever they encounter staring while out shopping, Nicky’s fiercely maternal instinct kicks in.
“She shoots them that typical angry mom look,” Chantel says.
And if Nicky’s not there, her friends’ moms assume the role, putting the curious in their place. “Everyone’s protective of her,” Nicky says. “It’s great.”
Efforts have been made over the years to remove or lighten Chantel’s mark with laser and infrared treatment but nothing worked.
She even had chemotherapy at the age of 14 for her swollen lip.
“At one stage I had to be admitted to hospital on the first Saturday of each month. I’d be anaesthetised and chemo would be injected into my lip. It was horrible,” she recalls.
“The chemo reduced the number of cells in the lip area in the hope that the lip wouldn’t swell as much,” Nicky explains.
But it was a disaster. Yellow blisters formed on Chantel’s bottom lip and the treatment left her feeling so ill she missed school for weeks on end. After two years, Chantel decided enough was enough and packed it in.
Though she hasn’t completely accepted the blemish on her face, Chantel says it’s become part of who she is.
She covered it with make-up for a recent dance at Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool Pretoria, where she’s in matric and thought it would make her feel prettier.
It didn’t. “I hated it. I realised I really don’t like how I look when I wear makeup.
“Many people have asked me if I’ll be wearing make-up to my matric ball later this year, but I refuse.”
CHANTEL constantly has to remind herself to take each day as it comes – “step by step”, she says. The staring hasn’t decreased over the years, nor has it become easier to deal with it. “It’s difficult,” she admits, her smile vanishing. “I feel it’s something I’ve had to make peace with for myself. Because though people sometimes tell me I’m pretty and I shouldn’t let my birthmark get me down, I’m the one person who needs to believe it.” There are things other teens do she feels she can’t, such as working part time as a waitron for pocket money. She worries customers will stare at her or get uncomfortable in her presence. People can be cruel, she says. Recently, a girl she doesn’t know commented on one of her Instagram pictures: “It looks like you’ve been drinking blood but you’re probably sweet.” Chantel doesn’t believe in the concept of an eye for an eye. “I don’t have time for that kind of negativity in my life,” she says. “I’d much rather use friendliness as a weapon.”