I've had vitiligo all my life. It's an auto-immune disease, but my mum thinks it could be something to do with me having measles as a child. She has a couple of theories, but it was never really identified as a child and no-one was really interested. I had it all over my face but now my face is completely white, as are some of the hairs. It's pretty symmetrical elsewhere, though. I even have it in the hair on my head. If I'm on a beach, I'll go brown in all the places I still have pigment but in the whiter places I burn - I mean, really burn. My mum never made my vitiligo an issue - she was brilliant and I didn't hide it until I was a teenager and an adult. People used to say, "Why don't you cover it up?" But why would I want to? It's everywhere and I'd have to slap foundation on my hands and feet. I don't notice I've got it until somebody looks. I'm a teacher, so the kids will ask me about it. I've had some catty comments like, "Miss, your fake tan isn't very good," but I tell them it's just a skin condition. The bit that bothers me the most is my hair - it doesn't take dye very well so you end up spending a lot of money on hair dye, but I'm part of a vitiligo group on Facebook and it's nice because people talk about it. I've never been bothered about it, apart from my face because it was quite panda-like. I try not to get tanned because the only bit of brown I have left is a strip on my nose. Recently I've developed diabetes and that is connected to the vitiligo. You can have Hashimotos and gut problems - other auto-immune diseases tend to group together with this and people are just starting to find links. I'm actually a bit disappointed that some of my vitiligo has disappeared, though. Apparently, by the age of 50 you're supposed to have lost 50% of your pigment, so I've done quite well.