Bodyshock

Episode 1

Turtle Boy

45 mins

In a tiny hamlet in Colombia, six-year-old Didier has struggled with a huge burden - a rare condition called a Congenital Melanocytic Nevus. It's a giant mole that grew so much it covered 40% of his body. It resembled a shell, and Didier was nicknamed Turtle Boy. There was a chance it could turn malignant. And Didier's mother Luz struggled with an additional burden - guilt. In this superstitious society, there was a belief that Didier's growth was a result of being conceived during an eclipse, which meant Luz and her family had to live apart from the rest of the village. Luz longed to be free to have her son baptized, to take him to school and see him grow up like any other boy. But there was no way she could raise the money for an operation, until a local news crew broadcast a story on Didier. The procedure would be complicated and dangerous, and even if it was successful the recovery process would involve a complicated series of skin grafts. This extraordinary film traces Didier's story: a story of cutting-edge medicine, a mother's love, and a brave six-year-old's fight to be released from his burden.