00:00 ISA-BELLA: My leg is about, I would say, two
times, maybe more, bigger than my left leg.
When new people see my leg some of them think it's broken, or that I've had, like a surgery.
Just show that you can have confidence with what you have.
00:14 COMM: Isa-bella Leclair has Parkes Weber syndrome.
A rare condition that caused her right leg to swell to around 40lbs.
00:23 COMM: A picture of Isa-Bella wearing a bikini
was shared online, which she hopes will inspire body confidence.
00:29 ISA-BELLA: I guess what made me want to share
my story and a picture of me in a bikini is that for me beauty is not just on the outside,
it's on the inside.
For me I have to learn how to love yourself before learning how to love others.
00:43 COMM: And she's even been crowned in a beauty
pageant.
Over the years Isa-Bella's condition has caused her right leg to swell.
00:51 ISA-BELLA: All the liquid, the lymph in my
body, all tends to go in my leg.
And once it's there, because the system is malformed it swelled my leg.
01:01 JOANNA: I literally realised something was
wrong with Isa-Bella's body the moment she was born.
One thing our doctors, her doctors told us was they didn't know how affected she would
be by the condition.
01:13 COMM: She was always open about the condition
and refuses to let it hold her back.
01:17 ISA-BELLA: Some of them think it's maybe broken
or that I've had, like a surgery and I say no, it's okay, it's something I was born with.
Some of them are fascinated actually, some of them are like wow I've never seen that
before.
01:28 ISA-BELLA: So for me the more people that
know about the syndrome the better it is.
01:32 JOANNE: I personally as a mother kept expecting
was her coming back from school crying or bawling that she'd be teased in school or
ridiculed and that day never came, not once.
Whatever she wanted to do, she would do it.
Whether it would be riding a bike, snowboarding.
Whatever it was.
01:49 COMM: Recently Isa-Bella entered a beauty
pageant in her hometown of Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Winning the title of first princess.
01:57 ISA-BELLA: I guess at the Miss Festival Pageant
I wasn't really surprised to win, I was more, I guess, grateful to win.
So when they called my name I was just like oh this is even better because it means I
can even inspire more people.
02:10 COMM: But Isa-Bella's number one fan, could
well be her twin sister.
Danyka.
Who doesn't have the condition.
02:17 DANYKA: I do find her very inspirational,
seeing her be the way she is.
She would like walk around and just be very comfortable in her skin.
I don't know, she's my sister.
I'm very proud of her.
02:29 COMM: Now, Isa-Bella is undergoing compression
therapy to force fluid from the enlarged limb, back into her lymph system.
02:37 MANON: Well we just finished an intensive
therapy with Isa-Bella for three weeks.
And as her therapist I knew that if we could get a bit of the leg volume down it will be
so much easier for her life.
And we did so well that we lost six centimetres around the whole leg, and she lost 8lbs of
water.
02:59 COMM: In future, Isa-Bella hopes to continue
to inspire others of her body positivity, and educate people about Parkes Weber Syndrome.
03:06 ISA-BELLA: If I had the choice to have been
born without Parkes Weber Syndrome I wouldn't change it for the world, I think it's made
me the person who I am today.
And it's just made me grateful I guess and to make you live to the fullest.
END