Sarah Atwell: ‘The Girl With A Half Face’ Documentary Tells Of Living With Tumor

Sarah Atwell, the Nova Scotia teen diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, will have her own documentary called The Girl With A Half Face in which she tells her story about living with a tumor on her face.

The teenager, who had endured cruel teasing from peers for years got worldwide notoriety when she decided to post a video to Facebook explaining how it felt to be bullied all her life.

Sarah Atwell is 17-years-old and is like any other girl her age, except for the fact that her condition, which she’s had since she was eight-months-old, makes tumors grow on one side of her face.

Her condition, which is incurable, make tumors grow on one side of her face and it also obstructs vision on her right eye.

Since Sarah Atwell’s condition was diagnosed when she was an infant, she’s had three surgeries to her eyes and three surgeries to her face. However, the tumors keep returning.

But that has not been the most difficult thing she’s had to endure. The teasing and taunting at school has been relentless.

“I was in grade three and people were calling me names like ‘fat face’ and ‘ugly’ and were pushing me around,” Sarah told ABC News. “They said I had a disease. Most of the time, I just walked away and didn’t say much to them.”

After she posted the video on YouTube, Sarah Atwell was flooded with supportive messages from all over the world.

Discovery Channel decided to do a special on her case called The Girl With A Half Face, which will air next month.

Sarah Atwell has undergone yet another surgery that has made her hopeful about her future.

“It’s pretty awesome. I am pretty sure most of it is gone except a little bit around the eyes. The doctor said he could not be sure if it would come back or not,” she told ABC News.

Discovery has not talked about how Sarah looks after the surgery to have it as a surprise for the audience.

“In terms of actual details we probably want to be a little more ambiguous about it so people get to see it when they watch the episode. We want people to tune in.” Discovery’s Jordyn Linsk told Medical Daily.

Sarah Atwell’s documentary, “The Girl with Half a Face,” will air on Discovery Fit & Health on Wednesday, December 18.