Being diagnosed with a rare disease can be a lonely and frightening experience. These disorders are often poorly understood and don’t generally inspire awareness campaigns in the same way that more common diseases do. As a result, people affected by rare diseases often feel abandoned. Couple this with a disease, whose symptoms can be disfiguring, and you have scleroderma – a progressive auto-immune disease. As part of this public presentation, you will learn about a unique project that includes a travelling photo exhibition of the faces of the rare disorder scleroderma or systemic sclerosis. Come and learn about the research undertaken into the psychological effects of the photo shoot on people coping with a rare disease.