Boy With Rare Skin Disorder Finds A Buddy In His Dog Twin

An 8-year-old boy with a rare skin condition isn’t feeling so alone since meeting a dog halfway across the country with the same disorder. Carter Blanchard of Searcy, Arkansas, has vitiligo, a skin disorder that destroys the cells that make pigment in the skin, according to the National Institutes of Health. Carter was first diagnosed in kindergarten and lost confidence as white patches appeared around his eyes, according to ABC News. “He was at a big school with a lot of kids, and his face was transforming very quickly,” his mother, Stephanie Adcock, told the network. “The first thing he’d tell me when he got in the car is that he hated his face and hated the way he looked.” Life was tough for Carter, but help came in the form of Rowdy, a 13-year-old purebred black Labrador retriever in Oregon who was diagnosed with vitiligo the same year as Carter. When Adcock first found pictures of Rowdy on Facebook, she quickly shared them with her son. “I read that Rowdy had vitiligo, and I was blown away,” she told KATU.com in Portland. “When I showed Carter, he was so excited to see a dog that was famous for his vitiligo.” Carter and his mom reached out to Rowdy’s owner, Niki Umbenhower of Canby, Ore., and built a long-distance friendship. That relationship became closer this past week after KATU viewers donated money to bring Carter and his mom to Canby to meet Rowdy.   Adcock is thrilled the...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news