This is Mary Ann Bevan. I had seen her photo on the Internet a few times with the caption:
This is Mary Ann Bevan. I had seen her photo on the Internet a few times with the caption: “The Ugliest Woman in the World” but thought there was more to her story than just her appearance. So I did some digging and was surprised to discover that she did not always look like this. If you swipe left, you’ll see a photo of her before she began to exhibit symptoms of acromegaly, shortly after her marriage at age 32. Acromegaly is a hormonal disorder that occurs when the pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone after the growth plates have closed. The disorder affects 3 out of 50,000 people and typically enlarges the hands and feet, but may also increase the size of the jaw, nose, and forehead. Mary was born in 1874 to a middle class family and was the only daughter (she had 7 brothers). She studied medicine and became a nurse in 1894. Nine years later, she married Thomas Bevan and had four children. They were a happy family until Mary was struck with the unknown disease at t...