A victim of horrific facial disfigurement -Jose Mestre, a 51 year old man from Lisbon, Portugal, has been losing his face to a huge growth of a facial tumor for the past 35 years, covers his entire face distorting it beyond recognition.

Jose's face is a collection of blood vessels that have expanded, producing a raised red area on the skin. Jose was born with a strawberry-colored birthmark on his upper lip. At puberty it began growing. Now it is 33cm long and weights more than 3 kg. Of course, Jose cannot work and the giant tumor, growing continuously since he was 16, destroyed one eye, extended over his mouth, tongue, and lips, twisting his gums and removing his teeth. The tumor bleeds frequently, especially during the sleep.

"Children see me and start crying. They probably think I'm an animal," Jose told one of the reporters ….though he has become a well-known figure around the streets of Lisbon.

This tumor could have removed with the help of a surgery, but Jose's religious faith - as a Jehovah's Witness he refuses to accept a blood transfusion and this has prevented him from having surgery to remove the growth.

Jose's dream is to live a long and normal life. Now a leading British surgeon has offered to treat Jose using ultrasound waves to coagulate the blood before the operation. This should remove the risk of heavy bleeding - satisfying his religious beliefs about blood transfusions in the process and the surgeon is confident that an operation with a harmonic scalpel could make him look a lot more normal.

I just hope that the doctors can do something for him. This is an absolutely cruel and terrible fate for any person. No one should suffer through this.