Georges stood in front of people for a living, with a tumour on his forehead
An accountant and lay preacher in Madagascar, he carried the growth for twenty years before surgery aboard the Africa Mercy.
Twenty years is long enough for a condition to stop being a medical problem and become an identity.
A public life, and a visible condition
Georges works as an accountant in Madagascar and preaches in his church. Both are jobs done facing other people, which is not a small thing when a growth on your forehead is what everyone sees first.
It had been there for two decades. Not because it was untreatable, but because there was no surgeon he could reach and no way to pay one.
Surgery aboard the Africa Mercy
The maxillofacial team removed the tumour free of charge. The procedure itself was not extraordinary; the wait for it was.
What he says now
He does not describe himself as transformed. He describes himself as ordinary again - the same as everyone else. For most patients, that is precisely the goal.
