The Girl with Vanishing Bones

     DUE to an incredibly rare condition, a teenager’s bones are quite literally vanishing. Born with a disease that means her body slowly absorbs the calcium designated for her bones, Natalia Villegas’ bones are slowly disappearing. Natalia, 14, wasn’t diagnosed with Idiopathic Multicentric Osteolysis, or IMO, until she was two-year-old; so little is known about IMO – there are only 100 known cases in the world – that there is currently no cure. Also referred to as the ‘vanishing bone disease’, Natalia admits she is in constant pain but won’t let that stop her from living as full and independent a life as possible.