A 40-year-old man, identified as Mohammad Lateef Khatana, lives in the mountains with his wife and children in the north Kashmir's frontier district of Bandipora. He was born with neurofibromatosis 2 (NF 2). 

It is a congenital disease that keeps getting worse with age. 

Lateef Khatana has tumors all over his body, but the largest tumors are on his face. The size of the tumors has caused him to lose sight in one eye and often has difficulty seeing from the other.

His face is deformed due to multiple folds of skin burying his forehead, eyes, ears, which has forced him to strive for his living. He barely earns a living from farming as it hardly gets him Rs. 100 (USD 1.38) a day.

Since his childhood, Lateef had to endure all the ugly comments from strangers in his village and had a hard time maintaining contact with anyone. NF 2 is usually caused by a mutation in a gene. He inherits this disease from someone from his family. However, he is glad that he did not pass on this genetic condition to any of his children.

Lateef is a happily married man. His wife, Salima, was born without a right foot and they were married to each other because of their disability. However, they have a good understanding of each other and have two daughters together.

Furthermore, he usually travels to Srinagar and Jaipur for his treatment, but he can hardly earn something to pay his medical expenses. The doctors told him that the cost of his treatment can be over Rs. 17 lakh (USD 23,150), which he cannot afford.

Around eight years ago, his brother sold a piece of land to pay for his trip to a doctor. But there was nothing more he could do for him. Lateef is the youngest and has two brothers and three sisters.

Since then, Lateef has been living a life of seclusion and therefore has been working in and around to cover his expenses. Therefore, he seeks funds from society and urges the citizens to support him in getting his surgery performed.