Ana Rochelle Pondare may have just celebrated her 18th birthday, but the teenager has been dubbed “the oldest woman in Asia”.
Pondare, from the Philippines, suffers from an extremely rare condition called progeria, which affects just one in every four million people.
The condition causes the body to age prematurely and the current average life expectancy for someone with progeria is 13 years, reports The Huffington Post.
“It is a condition diagnosed in children whose bodies are not able to produce a properly functioning version of a protein “lamin A,” which is involved in important functions such as DNA repair,” the NHS explains.
“Instead, their bodies make a defective version of the protein, known as progerin, which triggers a range of adverse effects at the cellular level. This causes major damage to multiple parts of the body, mimicking advanced ageing.”
