Doctors Say Girl with Facial Birthmark Could Die during Surgery — She's a Mom of Two Now

Chelsey struggled with how she looked for most of her life. Doctors did not even expect she would survive as a child, but the young woman has overcome all obstacles and is now a mother.

Canadian woman Chelsey Peat from Lethbridge, Alberta, was born with a rare condition, a neurological disorder dubbed the Sturge-Weber Syndrome.

This disorder left her with a large birthmark on the left side of her face, resulting in glaucoma in her left eye. At just 18 months, she had to undergo brain surgery to halt her life-endangering seizures resulting from her disorder.

Doctors even told her mother that Chelsey only had half a chance of surviving the surgical procedures. Even if she did not die, the little girl might live with severe mental disabilities.

Thankfully, the little girl survived the procedures, but her problems did not stop there. As soon as she was old enough to understand how she looked, Chelsey questioned her mother why she was different from other kids.

Life was tough on Chelsey because of her birthmark, and as a young child, people would often ask her mother if and how she got burnt or even think she had been beaten.

Going to school was an everyday struggle for young Chelsey because she got bullied regularly, making life difficult. The bullies taunted and called her a monster or freak. She was even nicknamed Two-Face.

All these terrible experiences made Chelsey depressed because she never thought she would fall in love, get married, or have kids due to how she looked.

FINDING LOVE AND REFLECTIONS

In 2004, Chelsey met IT worker Matt through mutual friends at a party, and afterward, the pair started chatting regularly online.

The opportunity to speak with Matt online made it easier for her to express herself to him more, and it made the young man get to know her beyond the birthmark that had somehow dictated her life up till that point.

After a while, he asked her out on a date, and in 2008 the pair got married. They have since become parents to two daughters, Athena and Zelda.

Speaking about her struggles and achieving the dream life that once seemed impossible, Chelsey explained that the disorder did not only result in a birthmark but a complete genetic mutation that nobody in her family has.

The part-time hospital worker and mother-of-two declared that she always sided with poor defenseless characters because that was how she felt.

She also struggled with self-acceptance as a teen and would sometimes apply heavy layers of foundation on her face to hide the birthmark. Chelsey, however, realized that hiding and making people comfortable with her was not the right way to go.

Meeting Matt was a silver lining for her, and Chelsey explained that for anyone to be interested in her at that time was a big deal that she never even thought was possible. She explained:

"I never thought I would have a husband or kids because of how I looked. But we fell in love, and he loved me for me. He didn't care about my birthmark."

Nowadays, the mom has learned to accept herself and embrace her looks. However, she also wanted her story to educate people and encourage them not to judge or abuse other people like her because of their physical conditions.