At 19, Alice is living with an incurable condition. But she's not letting it hold her back.

Alice Mulder is 19. A full-time marketing and business law student who loves to dance, play netball and socialise. She’s the kind of person who hates sitting still. But she has no choice.

For at least four hours every day, the Perth woman must slot her left leg into a compression machine in an effort to shift the fluid that’s accrued there; fluid that her damaged lymph vessels can’t transport on their own.

Alice suffers from a rare, incurable condition called Primary Lymphoedema.

Her leg appears permanently swollen, and while she’s the first to admit the aesthetics of the condition do bother her, she’s developed ways to overcome her self-consciousness.

“I’ve become really good at hiding it,” she told Mamamia.

“You’ll never see me standing with my feet together – I’ve always got one leg crossed over the other – and I wear a lot of maxi skirts. I’m a very social person, so I can’t let it stop me.”

Alice had never heard of the condition until doctors told her she had it. Image: supplied.

Alice was diagnosed with the condition at the age of 14, after injuring her ankle during a basketball match. The joint quickly swelled, and then so too did her entire leg. When the swelling failed to subside, it became clear something more serious was going on.

There were X-rays and ultrasounds, but no one could provide any answers. But then, a few days after the accident, a doctor finally said the words "Primary Lymphodoemia".

“I’d obviously never heard of it, like most people haven’t," said Alice. "But there wasn’t anything we could do, and I knew Mum and Dad would do anything they could to help me.”

And they did. Alice and her mother travelled to Italy for surgery and intensive therapy, which ultimately proved unsuccessful. Life since has been compression stockings, daily sessions on the compression machine (up to seven hours, if time permits) and regular exercise.

But Alice insists she's not limited.

“I can do anything else everyone else can do," she said.

"I’m not disadvantaged in any way.”

Alice (bottom left) with her netball team. Image: supplied.

Lymphoedema is most commonly associated with cancer patients, as lymph node removal or damage can occur during treatment. But Alice's version is different — as opposed to patients with Secondary Lymphoedema, she was born with the condition.

The Primary version often presents around puberty, so Alice said doctors suspect her symptoms developed due a combination of her age and her injury.

“At the moment there’s a lot of research but that’s where it stops. Obviously Mum and I are always asking ‘What’s next?’ But at the moment most of the research is about people who have got it from with breast cancer or from being overweight. Primary Lymphoedema is a totally different ballgame," she said.

“Even some GPs we’ve gone to, Mum has to explain what it is. When it’s getting to the point where your Mum knows more than a doctor, there’s an issue.”

Just one in every 6000 Australians have the condition, and Alice has never met anyone else her age who suffers from it.

“I did see a lady who was wearing a [compression] sleeve on her arm, and I got really excited. I’d never seen that before," she said. "It was comforting.”

"I'm not disadvantaged." Alice Mulder. Image: supplied.

With little public awareness, it's inevitable that Alice gets questioned when people see her leg for the first time.

“At first everyone’s like, ‘Dude, what’s wrong with your leg?’ But once I explain it to people they they understand that I was born with it, that there’s not much I can do about it," she said.

"That’s the only thing that could hold you back, but if other people don’t accept it then they’re probably people you shouldn’t be around anyway.”

And so she socialises like any 19-year-old, goes to the beach, plays netball, goes to the gym.

“If I let this hold me back, I probably wouldn’t be at uni, I wouldn’t have a massive network of friends, I wouldn’t be playing sport," she said.

"There’s people out there with a lot worse conditions. It’s not going to kill me, so I’ve just got to keep going."

Alice's mother, Jennifer Mulder, would love to see her beautiful daughter's diverse body celebrated with a fashion shoot.

"Although Alice has not let her Lymphoedema stop her from doing anything she wants to, she does have her down times when it can be overwhelming, " Jennifer said. "A fashion shoot would be wonderful for her self-esteem."

If you're a Perth-based designer, photographer, fashion label, etc., and would be willing to make this happen for Alice, please email belinda.jepsen@mamamia.com.au.