University News Last updated 01 April 2011
A Birmingham City University student is going to be featured in a Channel 4 programme about people who live with facial disfigurement.
Amit Ghose was filmed for an episode of Katie:My Beautiful Friends which will be broadcast on Tuesday 5 April. The 21 year old has an incurable condition called Neurofibromatosis Type 1 and as a result developed facial tumours. Born in Assam, India, Amit’s condition originally manifested in darker skin patches, but when his facial tumours developed, the whole family moved to Britain to seek the best treatment for him.
Since he was a child Amit has undergone numerous operations to ‘de-bulk’ the growths on his face, which will never stop growing. At fourteen, his left eye had to be removed, damaged irrevocably by the tumours. He now has a prosthetic eye in its place. In the future he will face surgery on his spine which is also affected by his condition.
Amit, who lives in Birmingham, started at Birmingham City University last September and was followed by a camera crew to document how he settled into student life. Viewers will see Amit enrolling on his course at the University’s business school, attending the Student Union’s ‘Freshers Fair ‘ and making friends with fellow students.
The series is presented by Katie Piper, a model who was facially disfigured in 2008 during a brutal attacked when sulphuric acid was thrown in her face. Katie has since launched a charity, the Katie Piper Foundation, which has Simon Cowell as its patron. The Foundation ultimately aims to found the first advanced rehabilitation and burns clinic in the UK.
During the programme featuring Amit, Katie follows his progress from his first day at University to making friends with fellow students to eventually organising fundraising events for a charity, Smiles Better, which raises funds for surgery for acid burn victims in south Asia.
Speaking on camera Amit said: “I used to think of entering teaching but was worried about how school students would react to me.
“Since starting university things have worked out really well and I now think it [teaching] may not be as bad as I thought it would.”
Previous to Katie: My Beautiful Friends, a documentary was made about Katie and how she coped with life following the attack that disfigured her face. Last year the University’s Creative Networks hosted a talk by Jessie Versluys who won a BAFTA for directing the documentary which is called, Katie: My Beautiful Face, a documentary.
Katie: My Beautiful Friends will be screened on Channel Four on Tuesday 5 April at 9pm.