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"There
is no cause. There is no cure, and it's very random,"
Thomas says. "I could turn all the way white or
mostly white."
As
many as 65 million people worldwide have the disorder,
including up to 2 million in the United States.
Few
people, outside medical professionals and those with
the disease, had heard the term "vitiligo"
until Michael Jackson revealed in the early 1990s that
the disorder was behind his skin turning brown to white.
It's
not fatal, but experts say vitiligo robs people of self-confidence,
evokes ridicule and unpleasant stares, and pushes some
into unforced seclusion.
The
40-year-old Thomas says that's not where the disorder
needs to be. He openly talks about vitiligo and how
it has affected his life and career, and has written
a book about his journey titled "Turning White:
A Memoir of Change." Along the way, Thomas says
he's met others with the disorder and has become a celebrity
spokesman for the Columbus, Ohio-based National Vitiligo
Foundation.
Vitiligo
attacks the soul and psyche, foundation executive director
Robert Haas says.
"When
was the last time you saw someone with vitiligo handling
your food? It is the public's image that it is some
leprosy-type of disease," he says. "A lot
of folks feel this disease has trapped them and kept
them away from their life goals."
That
was Thomas' fear.
He
uses a combination of creams and makeup to cover the
growing patches of skin — which he calls devoid
of color — on his face, hands and arms. Viewers,
co-workers and, for years, his basketball buddies, were
none the wiser.
Only
family members and those closest to him knew the secret
he had kept since age 25.
Thomas
first noticed a change after getting a haircut while
working in Louisville, Ky. He looked in a mirror and
thought the barber had nicked him. A closer look revealed
a pale spot, about the size of a quarter.
"I
got two more on the other side of my scalp, on my hand
and one in the corner of my mouth," he recalls
in an interview from the station's studio. "That's
when I went to the doctor and got diagnosed."
He
didn't let it slow down his blossoming career. From
Louisville, he soon landed at WABC in New York for three
years beginning in 1994. After a short freelancing stint
in Los Angeles, Thomas found his way to WJBK in Detroit
in 1997. He has carved a niche in the Motor City market
with his quirky, upbeat and humorous reporting style;
his confidence, constant smile and positive air on the
set mirrors his demeanor off the set as well.
Even
though Thomas uses makeup to conceal his skin discoloration,
he realized the vitiligo was becoming more obvious when
he couldn't hide it from a preschooler during a story
about a playground. His two-toned hands frightened the
girl, who began to cry.
"I
thought my career was over," says the Emmy award
winner who routinely travels to Hollywood for one-on-one
interviews with celebrities including Will Smith, Tom
Cruise and Halle Berry.
So
he gathered himself one day and approached the station's
news director, prepared to walk away from television.
"She
said, 'Let's just see what happens,'" Thomas recalls.
"As it got worse, she kept encouraging me to tell
my story."
Dana
Hahn, WJBK's vice president of news, says the station
was concerned about Thomas possibly leaving because
of the condition.
"Lee
is also a friend and we wanted to help," she says.
"He had covered it up so well, we really didn't
realize the impact it was having or how far it had spread."
Thomas
finally agreed to tell his story on television in November
2005.
After
the first segment on Thomas' vitiligo aired, Hahn says
he took a leave of absence and missed the initial response
from viewers.
"I
received 40 to 50 e-mails a day the entire time he was
gone," Hahn says. "So many people found support
and encouragement in his story. I've never seen the
kind of response to any story in my 12 years at Fox
2."
At
the time, Thomas was already writing his book.
"As
all those things happened, the tone of the book changed,"
he says. "I was writing for all those people who
were afraid to come outside."
Dr.
Sancy Leachman, associate professor of dermatology at
the University of Utah, calls vitiligo stigmatizing,
driving some to even consider suicide.
"They
feel people are looking at them all of the time,"
she says. "They are very self-conscious about people
staring at them in the grocery line. It can be a very
demoralizing condition."
Thomas
acknowledges he even preferred the security of solitude
to the awkward stares of strangers when not wearing
his makeup.
"There
were times when I would not come out of the house,"
he says. "I call it a mental war. It was me saying,
'I don't want to deal with it today.' I never stayed
in for very long. I know people who stay in now for
months at a time."
When
he's out socially now, Thomas forgoes the makeup he
wears on camera.
He
met his girlfriend of seven months, Karen Tate, at a
vegetarian restaurant they both enjoy. She said when
they're out together, she notices some people staring
and making muffled comments about his appearance.
"He
doesn't say anything," Tate, 28, says. "It
doesn't really bother me. Some people are just rude."
She
says she sees past what some people can't. "He
just has a very free spirit. He is just a very nice
guy. He opens up completely in his book. It is something
he really wanted to do."
Surprisingly,
Thomas gives vitiligo some credit.
"Having
this disease forces me to focus on what I am: kind,
caring, honest," he says. "There are people
who have diseases that will kill them."
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