Ana Rochelle Pondare, a Filipina who was suffering from a rare disease that affects one in every four million people has died, according to a US-based foundation doing research on the illness.
She passed away at the age of 19, Progeria Research Foundation announced on Thu, Aug 11.
The medical condition causes the body to age prematurely, and average life expectancy of sufferers is 13 years old.
Two years before her death, doctors said Pondare had the appearance of a 136 year old. Her skin was “wrinkled from face to feet. The muscles on her arms and thighs have shrunk. She has lost all her hair and can never grow it back,” wrote online magazine Vera Files.
Pondare never let progeria stop her from being productive. Though she only finished first year of high school, she had big dreams for her mother, who raised her alone after leaving her alcoholic father when she was eight.
Like her mother, Pondare sold garments and fruits on the streets and at the wet market in Plaridel, Bulacan, located on the northern edge of Metro Manila.
When she turned 18 last year, Pondare, who like many Filipinos idolize local celebrities, was granted a long-time wish to meet one of her idols, Filipino singer and actress Sarah Geronimo (pictured above).
Pondare’s other wish, to build a home for her mother and siblings, was also granted that same year when a real estate company gave her a house.
According to Korina Sanchez, a broadcast journalist in the Philippines who helped broker the donation, “Rochelle had an unusually happy and hopeful disposition. She even got to her debut party. For her 18th birthday she wished she could at least help her mother and leave a home for them behind knowing she could leave them anytime soon.” With a report from ABS-CBN News
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