My name is Fazeel  and I’m a Year 7 student at Greenshaw High School.

Recently, ITV came to our school to film me doing a presentation to my Year 7 tutor group (which I have also done in primary school). The experience was phenomenal, not just for me, but for our tutor group and all the teachers who were there. My presentation was on a serious, rare skin condition I have called EB (Epidermolysis Bullosa) or butterfly skin. It’s called butterfly skin because our skin is as fragile as a butterfly’s wings.

EB is a group of genetic skin conditions which cause the skin to blister and tear at the slightest touch. There are three types of EB: Simplex EB; Recessive Dystrophic EB (which is what I have); and Junctional EB.

EB affects my life in many ways, for example, every day I have to go through two to four hours of dressing changes as I have dressings all over my body, but I don’t let that stop me doing the things I want to do in my life. I have to take regular medicines and pain relief because I am constantly in pain.
I want to tell all of you this because even though I’m going through this every day, I don’t let it stop me from accomplishing everything I want to do, including having over 90% attendance. If I can do, it I’m sure all the kids can. And if anyone wants to find out more about EB, you can go to Debra’s website (who are a charity for people with EB) and you can also check out the programme made about me called Paul O’Grady’s Little Heroes - episode 3 on YouTube - and the news segment on YouTube called ‘Boy with fragile skin spends spare time motivating others’ on ITV London News.

Thank you.
Fazeel

You can watch the ITV London News interview with Fazeel and his tutor group here and Paul O’Grady’s Little Heroes - episode 3 here.