Libby Huffer was 5 years old when she was told she had neurofibromatosis type 1.
Throughout childhood and much of adolescence, she lived a normal life. Then the lumps began to appear, first hundreds of them, scattered across her skin. In 1993, while she was pregnant with her daughter, hormones caused them to multiply into the thousands. Today, this woman from Fort Wayne, Indiana, has more than 5.500 tumors from her forehead to her feet, and lives with chronic pain. She underwent ten surgeries to remove them. The surgery failed: some tumors grew back. She also endured bullying at school, so much so that she stopped being Elizabeth and started going by Libby, leaving that memory behind. Her last hope is a specialized treatment that removes thousands of tumors in a single five-hour session, and that is why she decided to show her skin in public to raise funds.
NF1 is a rare genetic condition that affects about 1 in every 3.000 people worldwide, and its lumps are not cancerous.
