‘I had this strong feeling that my face was disfigured’ – Kitty Wallace, the body dysmorphic sufferer turned campaigner

Her early life was blighted by the condition, until a TV documentary changed everything. Now, she works for the UK's leading support group

Kitty Wallace remembers very clearly the first time she felt there was something horribly wrong with her face.

She was eight years old, in her downstairs bathroom with a friend as they washed their hands before dinner. I just remember looking at our reflection and thinking how different I looked to her," she says. At that moment, I had this very strong feeling that my face was offensive or disfigured compared with hers, and then a sudden realisation that this must be as obvious to everyone else as it was to me."