Congenital Melanocytic Naevus

I was sent a request by a friend yesterday. It was a simple request to take some photographs of her daughter who has Congenital Melanocytic Naevus, I’ll be honest I never knew that Isabelle has CMN but once I found out I wanted to help.  All mam was asking was for a few photographs to support the “just giving” page so they could raise funds to help other children with CMN. I was more than happy to help, donate and share for them.

“Hi Kristy,   I was hoping you could do me a favour and I really don’t mean to offend you by asking.

As you know, Isabelle was born with Congenital Melanocytic Naevus, a rare condition appearing in only 1 in 20,000 new-born babies and the complications can be fatal. It costs £100,000 a year to fund research at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Money to fund this research comes only from direct donations and fundraisers arranged by families of those affected by CMN. With the money raised so far we have recently found the cause of CMN. We now need to find the life-saving treatments to prevent any more suffering and the devastating effects it can have.

I am organising a couple of charity events and to run alongside this I am setting up a Just Giving page, and this is where my favour from you comes in!

I was hoping you would consider taking a couple of photographs of Isabelle to use on the page……..“

Isabelle came round to visit that same day, we set up an urban shoot and sat and had a chat about what it meant to mam to do this. I read the information on CMN and I was taken back, I didn’t realise how much this could affect a child’s life and in fact how it could also be fatal.  The weather was good, so we went to one of my favorite locations to start our shoot.

Isabelle being a perfect model

CMN is an abbreviation of Congenital Melanocytic Naevus, a type of birthmark that may appear in newborn babies. Use the links below to find out more about the condition.

 What is a CMN?

A congenital melanocytic naevus (or CMN) is a type of birthmark.

• Congenital = present at birth
• Melanocytic = to do with melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells in everyone’s skin and hair that produce the pigment melanin. This is what which gives us our hair and skin colour. The cells in a CMN look most like melanocytes and they produce pigment, so they are called melanocytic.
• Naevus = birthmark (the plural is naevi).

Though CMN means birthmark or mole at birth, in fact, not all of them are present at birth. Around 1% of CMN appear after birth, usually in the first year of  life. They look exactly the same as the ones present at birth, but are called CMN “tardive”, which means “late”.

you can find more information about CMN and caring matters now on this link http://www.caringmattersnow.co.uk/

 

Caring matters now.

 

Mam has set up a just giving page to help raise funds.

 https://www.justgiving.com/Tanith-Armstrong1/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fundraisingpage&utm_content=Tanith-Armstrong1&utm_campaign=pfp-share&fb_ref=Default

Please take the chance to visit the page and read more.

Isabelle is not only one of the sweetest little girls I’ve met, she’s always one of the bravest, strongest and I wish her all the best health in the future. I really hope they manage to reach the target figures and the fund-raising goes well.

All the best Kristy xx