Shalini Yadav is 16, but her life is like no other teenage girl. Shalini suffers from a rare condition that means she sheds her entire skin every 45 days.

Instead of the school supporting her when she was ostracised by her classmates, Shalini was recently asked to leave.

The teen is absolutely heartbroken that she can no longer learn just like all of the other kids.

“I wanted to study but they threw me out of school as the children would get scared by seeing my face,” she explains.

The disease with no cure

Shalini's condition is called Erythroderma. It’s an inflammatory skin disease also known as ‘red man syndrome’, and it has no cure. It causes the skin over the entire body to become scaly and flake off.


hands feet side by side

Shalini has suffered from Erythroderma since birth. Photo: MEGA


"I feel so helpless - my child is in excruciating pain"

Every hour, night and day, she soaks her skin in water and slathers it with lotion to prevent it from drying out and hardening.

“Shalini has suffered from the disease since childhood,” her mother, Devkunwar, said.



“This disease is not killing her but taking her life bit by bit.”



Devkunwar's mum feels helpless watching her daughter suffer. Photo: MEGA


The pain is similar to being burnt from head to toe

Shalini’s siblings, Sejal, 15, and Price, eight, have escaped the condition.

“It’s really sad because she was not born normally and has scaly skin all over her body,” her father Rajbahadur says.


"I want to live"

Mum Devkunwar, a care-giver at a community centre, wonders if death would be kinder to her daughter.


But although Shalini suffers greatly, she feels differently.

“Everybody in the family is suffering because of my medical condition. But what is my fault? What sin did I commit to be cursed with such a disease? I want to live,” she said.