A 41-year-old woman identified as Kelly Fidoe-White has revealed that she has a rare condition which makes her smell like fish.
Kelly said she noticed this from the age of six, but did not discover the true cause until the age of 34. She revealed that she has to take four showers a day to mask her odour.
The Sun reported that the senior radiographer from Oldham, Manchester, has lived her entire life with trimethylaminuria (TMAU); a disorder more commonly known as “fish-odour syndrome”.
The condition is so rare it has only been recorded 100 times in medical records, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.
However some medical professionals believe the real figure may be much higher and other sources put it at around 200.
People suffering with TMAU regularly produce a range of strong bodily odours with examples including rotten fish, onion and faeces.
Kelly first noticed her urine would smell like fish at the age of six, and when puberty kicked in years later, she began to develop a prominent body odour beyond her toilet visits. “People call it a curse, and I can see why,” Kelly told NeedToKnow.online.
She also disclosed that she has suffered decades of name-calling and finding ways to cope with her symptoms.
She changes her uniform twice a day and uses whole cans of deodorant to cover the scent. At one point, her mum was forced to visit her work with a fresh pair of clothes after someone complained to management about her smell.
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