Love Disfigure, the campaign raising awareness and support for people living with disfigurement, is supporting the call by local residents to create Joseph’s Garden in Whitechapel, London to honour the memory of Joseph Merrick.
Love Disfigure supports over 3,000 people with skin conditions, burns, scars or disfigurement and was founded by Sylvia Mac, a child burns survivor.
Sylvia Mac said, “I lived in Shadwell growing up and my mother worked as a cleaner in the London Hospital where Joseph lived his last years. My mother often told me about the “elephant man”. I have always felt connected to him as I was going through battles of my own with my disfigurement.”
Sylvia Mac is joining Joseph’s Garden as an organiser of the community effort to create a new garden and statue to commemorate Joseph Merrick. Sylvia said, “As a person with a disfigurement, It is such a honour to be involved in this wonderful project supportIng the memory of Joseph Merrick.”
Sylvia Mac is a recipient of the UK Prime Minister’s Point of Light and Boots 2020 Women of the Year awards.