Marked and Proud: Port-Wine Stain Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe port-wine stains, the flat birthmarks made of widened blood vessels in the skin. Parents write about being told a mark would fade, neighbours with opinions in Pune, a grandmother who travelled two days to a village near Accra, an adopted daughter with no family history, and handing a small son to the anaesthetist in Cairo. Adults write about school photo day, dating apps, a hijab across a marked forehead, a beard grown for ten years and proposals that stopped coming. The writers include a paramedic, a Grade Two teacher in Kingston, a hairdresser, a swimmer in the changing room, a point guard, and a doctor who wore long sleeves through her training. Places range from Seattle to Kyoto. Treatments include repeated laser sessions under anaesthetic, finding a doctor experienced with darker skin, photodynamic therapy, a research study, camouflage makeup classes, sun care and eye surgery. Some families live with Sturge-Weber syndrome, with eye pressure checks, daily drops and a written plan for seizures, and one woman describes a leg made longer and wider by a related condition she calls KTS. Some chose no treatment at all. Results vary: one woman had seven sessions and a modest change, and one man's flat mark thickened in his late forties.

Who it's for

For parents of a newborn with a port-wine stain, adults who have carried one for decades, and the grandparents, partners, teachers and clinicians who want to understand.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 243 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.