A 15-year-old girl, who suffers from anosmia, has been unable to smell anything since she was born.
Abi Millard, from Poole in Dorset, missed out on so many things while growing up because of the loss of smell and it’s getting even harder as she is now a teenager.
Abi says: “It’s hard as a teenager. Lots of my friends are starting to have relationships and will say things like, ‘I love how my boyfriend smells’.”
Sometimes, she feels disconnected as people talk about things she has no idea about. She says the girls at her school talk about perfumes a lot but she has no idea what it smells.
She wants to wear perfume and says she would give anything to even sniff a rotten fish.
Abi said: “A friend bought me perfume for Christmas and said it would suit me. I wear it occasionally but often forget. Sometimes I worry I’ve put on too much, as it’s difficult for me to smell.”
She is forced to ask her mum every time she wears perfume or body spray if she is wearing too much because she has no idea about it.
Abi feels sad when her friends can tell what’s for lunch without even looking at the school canteen.
She says the loss of smell has hugely affected her life but some assume she is just making it up to get attention.
Abi’s mum Dawn says she realized Abi never complained about the smell of food when she was four and immediately thought something was not right.
Dawn took Abi to a GP and she had a blind taste test. When Abi was given a strawberry yoghurt, she couldn’t tell what it was.
Dawn said: “We were wafting strawberries under her nose to see if she could smell them but she couldn’t identify anything. A doctor prescribed nose sprays and Abi was referred to specialist after specialist, but many rubbished the idea that she was unable to smell. In the end, we gave up.”
Life became harder for Abi as she grew up and her mother decided to take her to a specialist Professor Carl Philpott at the James Paget University Hospital in Norfolk.
She was then diagnosed with anosmia. Abi went on to have two operations to fix her septum but they didn’t work.
Talking about her struggles, Abi’s mother said: “She wouldn’t be able to smell gas if there was a leak or smoke in a fire. She can’t tell if food has gone off. But the biggest issue is the lack of awareness. When you tell somebody, first of all they don’t believe you.”
Abi added: “I’ve never known any different, so for me it is normal. One of the biggest issues is food, as I can’t taste many things. I love spicy Mexican food. It has to be quite strong for me to take any enjoyment from eating. Everything needs twice as much salt or ketchup.”
Abi says she would love to smell perfume, cut grass, or chocolate as she has heard good things about them. She even wants to smell nasty things to know why her friends dislike them.
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