A 62-year-old dubbed the ‘Bubble man’ because his body is covered in tumours has revealed how people treat him worse than a “dirty stray animal.” Mohammad Umar started growing small lumps on his hands at 14, and since then his body has slowly been ravaged by benign tumours. Now, they cover his entire body.
“I’m a good man,” he said. “And I can work hard, but my looks are a problem to other people. No one likes looking at me or being near me. It’s ruined my life.”
Umar, from Hyderabad, India, was born healthy. His mother had lumps on her hands but nowhere else, without realising she had passed on a more aggressive disease. She died in 2001.
“I was born with soft, smooth skin,” he said. “I didn’t realise what they were when they started growing at 14, but then my mother noticed they were the same as her hands, and took me to see a doctor.”
But as the years passed, Umar’s condition progressively got worse. By the time he was 20, he had random lumps growing on numerous parts of his body.
He said: “I knew it was going to get worse; I knew it was a nightmare to come.” The doctor told him he could pass it on to his children if he married.
He said: “The doctor said there were no guarantees, but it was a possibility. I worried about it for years; I wondered whether I should ever marry.”
But then Umar met Farhat-un-Nisa, 45, fell in love, and married when he was 28. Farhat did not care about Umar’s lumps back then.
She said: “I could sense Umar was a good man; he was kind and generous. My family warned me that the future could be difficult if his skin got worse. They even consulted a doctor on my behalf, but I took the risk.”
They went on to have children, and thankfully, as they grew up, they seemed unaffected. But as years passed, Farhat could only watch as her husband became engulfed in huge, itchy tumours.
She added: “I felt very helpless. Doctors said there was no cure for him. It changed him; he was once very happy but he became very insecure and scared. We struggled to live and raise our family.”
Meanwhile, Umar lost his job as a luggage assistant at the local railway station, and no one would give him another job.
“As the lumps grew bigger,” he said, “people stopped me carrying their luggage, so my boss sacked me. I tried to find another job, but people would just tell me to leave, with a look of disgust on their face. It was very humiliating.”
Umar has even struggled to rent a house. “Many landlords don’t want me living in their property. We’ve had to move many times; people think I will infect everything.”
In the end, Farhat had to get a part-time job in the local school to provide for the family.
Umar felt worthless as a man and husband, and as a father to his married daughter, Shama, now 25, and sons Mohammad Hussain, 20, Mohammad Subani, 18 and Khaja, 12.
He said: “I hate my children seeing me like this; my sons should respect me, but what kind of a father am I who can’t provide for his family?”
Umar has now resorted to occasionally begging on the streets.
“I walk around the city and wait for people to donate,” he said. “I either get people shouting at me and pushing me away, or they give me money out of sympathy. It’s all I can do to help my family.
“I hate showing myself to people, but if God has made me this way, it’s the only thing I can do to get some money.”
And to make matters worse, his youngest son, Khaja, has recently shown signs of growing lumps — the first child in the family to inherit Umar’s condition.
“I thought after three children, I had been blessed; I was sure I couldn’t pass it on, and I was so relieved,” he explained.
“But Khaja has some little lumps growing on his face and hands and legs, and that’s how mine began. I’m devastated.”
Dr Chilukuri Srinivas, a consultant oncologist from Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad believes Umar has the condition called Neurofibromatosis and there is no cure.
“It looks pretty obvious to me that he has a severe case of Neurofibromatosis,” he said, adding:
“There is no known cure for this condition, and it’s a very uncomfortable condition to live with. I wish there was something I can do, but there is just nothing that can be done for him or his son.”
Thankfully, Umar is in no pain, but he finds the discomfort unbearable.
“I sweat in the summer heat, and it makes them itchy, so it’s hard to sleep at night. And the lumps are growing so big around my eyes, I can barely see,” he said.
“I try to keep myself tidy and presentable, and my wife helps me shave and cut my hair, but there’s not much I can do to hide these lumps; they grow and grow.
“I don’t know what I’d do without my wife; she’s a blessing, and I’m lucky to have her. I love my family very much.” And Farhat said she has no regrets about marrying Umar.
“I am very happy; I have no regrets,” she said. “I sometimes find it hard to remember what my husband used to look like, but he is here with me now, and that’s all that matters.” (MailOnline)

What is neurofibromatosis?
The name for a group of conditions that cause lumps to grow on the coverings of nerves.
There are two main types, the most common being Type 1 or NF1. This affects around one person in 2,500. There is no known cure.
NF is caused by a mutation in one of the genes. About half of the people who have NF have no family history of the condition. This is called a spontaneous gene mutation. The other half of people will have inherited NF from their mother or father.
Symptoms can vary from one person to another, even in the same family.
Some people have a very mild form, and may not realise they have it – developing six or more harmless coffee-coloured patches on the skin.
However, other sufferers are affected by neurofibromas, which usually appear during adolescence. These may first appear on the skin as a purplish mark, before a small fibrous lump appears. They can also grow along deeper-seated nerves inside the body, which can be painful if knocked.
The lumps can increase in number during a person’s lifetime. There is no treatment to stop the lumps from appearing, although surgery or laser treatment can sometimes be used to remove them.
Richard Taylor, chairman of the Neuro Foundation said: “NF1 is a debilitating genetic illness that causes benign tumours to grow in 25,000 patients in the UK.
“The condition often leads to social isolation, as many people simply do not understand or appreciate the condition.”
For more information about neurofibromatosis, please visit www.nfauk.org