Charlene Beswick wears years fighting for his son Harry and for making the world around him a better place. This mother blogger, author of the web Our Altered Life, has thousands of followers who support her and want the best for her little one, but unfortunately she still runs into people who criticize and despise her child's physical appearance.
His son was born with Goldenhar syndrome, a strange disease that has prevented half of your face from developing correctly. To the teasing that Harry tends to face, an incident occurred with the social network Instagram, which has deleted a photo of the child for considering that it violated the guidelines of his community.
Complaints on Instagram
A shared publication of ✨Our Altered Life✨ (@ouralteredlife) on Sep 9, 2017 at 5:08 PDT
This photograph, shared a month ago by Charlene on her Instagram account and in which she is seen kissing her son, was denounced by a user, and the social network proceeded to remove it for violating the guidelines of your community.
As the Guardian newspaper reports, the mother decided to publish what happened on her social networks asking for the support of the people, and shortly thereafter, Instagram got in touch with her regretting what happened and restoring that photograph.
"What do you see when you look at my son? I see the most beautiful smile, the most wonderful heart and the purest love. Unfortunately, some people on Instagram feel that looking at my son is too much and they have reported, again, a photograph of him , despite the fact that the photo had more than 2,300 likes and more than 200 support comments. " - Charlene complained in her Facebook account.
Instagram community guidelines prohibit photos that are considered "inappropriate for a diverse audience," including those that show nudity, celebrate organized crime, terrorism, or self-harm. It also prohibits photographs that intimidate or harass someone because of their race, sex, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disability or injury.
In this case, and as reported by The Guardian, it seems that the photograph was eliminated for inciting harassment, since possibly the one who denounced misunderstood what he was seeing and reading. After restoring the photo, Instagram apologized to the family.
Unfortunately, it is not the first time that Harry, 12, faces looks of contempt, criticism and teasing for his physical appearance. His mother says some children run away from him, they call him "weirdo" and "Halloween monster."
"On one occasion, someone on social networks told me that my son was an abomination of God. Harry is not aware of this but his brother is, and always tries to protect him" - Charlene laments.
A strange disease
Charlene lived a wonderful and plethoric pregnancy. I expected twins and everything was going very well. Routine tests and ultrasounds did not reveal the strange condition with which one of his children would be born.
But nevertheless, in week 32 his life took a radical turn, and after spontaneously giving birth Charlene underwent an emergency caesarean section and gave birth to two premature babies: Harry and Oliver, who were immediately taken to special care by the hospital.
Hours later, doctors informed Charlene that one of her twins, Harry, was born with a strange disease called Goldenhar syndrome, a condition that had prevented half of her face from developing correctly.
Her baby had no left eye, ear or nostrils, and her left jaw was very short and poorly developed.. Charlene could not believe what was happening and that state of shock made her fall into a postpartum depression.
"I could not believe it and I felt very guilty. I cried for the life that my son could never have, but now I look back and wish I could have seen him for what he was: a very beautiful baby. He had a big, very bright blue eye and a beautiful smile "- declared to the newspaper Metro this English mother.
Photo via Our Altered LIfe.com Harry, who was also diagnosed with nonverbal autism when he was two years old, has already gone through several operations. He has a prosthetic ear and a fake eye and will still need to undergo further surgery to rebuild his nose.
Far from sinking, Charlene resurfaced and decided to share her story with the world through her website, "Our Altered Life" and her social networks, where she shows the day to day of her motherhood.The life of Harry and his family, is a history of effort, courage and overcoming. It is a story of potholes and tears, but also of many smiles full of love and hope. But, above all, it is a story that shows us that life can and should be enjoyed.
Recently, Charlene has also published a book for publicize your child's illness, and encourages people who cross their path to ask questions so they can give more visibility to Harry's disease.
Because information, knowledge and, above all, educate our children in respect and empathy for others, are keys to get a better society in which children like Harry, never have to feel excluded or different.
Photos via Our Altered Life, reproduced with permission
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