Bella Hadid has candidly spoken about her struggle with Lyme disease at the Global Lyme Alliance Gala in New York.
On Thursday, Bella, whose mother Yolanda Hadid has also been open about suffering from the disease, told of how she was diagnosed as a teenager in 2012, and was immediately impacted by the condition.
According to People, the 20-year-old who accepetd an award at the event, said it was dedicated to “all the teenagers out there that have really gone through what I’m going through and have suffered through the disease with no end in sight.”
“I know where you’re coming from, you’re not alone,” she said. “My teenage years were taken from me. I was forced to start homeschooling my second year of high school, which of course I didn’t want to do because I’d rather go hang out with my friends, go to parties.”
She explained that horseback riding "was my dream of my life and what I did every single day until I just stopped and realized I didn’t have the brain power to ride horses anymore, so that was the end of that."
"I know what it feels like to not want to get out of bed from bone pains and exhaustion and days on end of not wanting to socialize or be around people because the anxiety and brain fog just isn’t worth it," she said.
Bella gave up showjumping in 2013, but it was only last year that her family decided to publicly share that Yolanda, Bella, and her younger brother Anwar had been diagnosed with Lyme disease.
"After years of this you begin to get used to living with the sickness, instead of getting cured and moving on with your life," the model described. "Life isn’t always what it looks like on the outside, and the hardest part of this journey is to be judged by the way you look instead of the way you feel."
Yolanda Hadid, 52, also spoke at the event, demanding to know "why is there no cure?"
She fought back tears as she described how hard it is "for people to understand the invisible disability that owns our life especially behind the beautiful face that shines so bright on the covers of magazines."
"Every mother here today understands the hopelessness that comes when nurturing your child that battles a disease without a cure," she said. "I am so grateful and proud of my daughter Bella for understanding the higher purpose of her journey and speaking openly about her journey in order to bring awareness for the hundreds of thousands of teenagers who suffer just like she does but whose voices cannot be heard."
Ultimately, she vowed to her children: "I promise you I will find a cure."
While Lyme disease is a recognised medical condition in the United States, sufferers in Australia face a divided medical community over whether the disease exists here. Help is difficult to find and sufferers are often diagnosed with other health problems with similar symptoms.