// BBC HEALTH NEWS — SALUTE
My physical deformity left me feeling invisible - but one surgeon saw me
Charlie kept her condition hidden for years and says it made her life "hell" at times
As a teenager at school, Charlie Clarke "felt awful" in her uniform, with a physical deformity leaving her so self-conscious that she hid from her classmates.
At home, she wrapped her dressing gown tight around her chest, hoping it would conceal her condition - and didn't even tell her parents about it.
Now 26, Charlie has lived with pectus excavatum - a congenital chest wall condition that can make the chest appear sunken or hollow - for years.
As she awaits surgical treatment, she said the emotional and physical effects of the condition were "unimaginable and unignorable".
"Having pectus excavatum, which is a disability and a deformity under my shirt, was at times hell," she said.
Her worst memories from her teenage years are of hiding in the school bathroom during PE so other girls would not comment on her having "four breasts".
"I got to a point where I felt awful wearing my school uniform because of how I looked, also because of how people looked at me and made comments about my chest," said Charlie, from County Down.
Charlie didn't tell her parents about the severity of her condition for years
The condition, which affects one in every 200 people, means Charlie's heart and lungs are compressed, which triggers breathlessness and an increased heart rate that can cause her to lose consciousness.