Gilvaneide Martins is a young woman from Brazil whose story was relayed by the Daily Mail, when you read it at first it looks like Sci-Fi, but this story can't be more real!
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The young woman, who was born with lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis, dreams of one day wearing high heels. Unfortunately, she cannot because of this condition, which gave her oversized feet.
An inalterable fate
Even worse: the condition means that her feet will continue to grow, and little to nothing can be done to prevent this. The young woman told RT in an interview:
I like to go to parties, but have to walk barefoot, so my dream is to be able to wear heels. If I'm going to wear a nice dress, I have to match it with nice heels.
Unfortunately for her, doctors aren't very optimistic about the progression of her disease and fear that surgery won't allow her to one day wear shoes as any other young woman would.
An illness well-known world wide
More than 120 million people are infected with lymphatic filariasis around the world and it is most common in Africa and Asia.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 120 million people worldwide suffer from this tropical disease, which is mainly passed on to humans by mosquitoes in South America, southern Africa, and Asia.
