NF on TV Tonight
Posted at 9:02 AM (PST) on Wednesday, February 7, 2007

TV show to feature local man's surgery tonight

By Pat Shellenbarger
The Grand Rapids Press
February 7, 2007

WYOMING -- People stared. Even though he couldn't see them, Daniel Strube knew they were looking at him, and the large tumors that covered much of his face.

Sometimes children would ask, what's wrong with that man's face? And he would hear the parents shush them. Sometimes friends and family members would tell him people were staring. He didn't blame them.

"If I had sight and I was on the other side of the spectrum and I saw somebody who looked like I do, I'd probably stare, too," the Wyoming man said. "It was bugging me. I like being out around people, but, knowing how I looked, it kind of made me self-conscious."

Strube, 35, no longer feels self-conscious. Although his face is scarred, the tumors are gone, and, for that, he is grateful to a Chicago plastic surgeon. His surgery is expected to be featured in a program, "New Face, New Hope," airing tonight on The Learning Channel.

Strube said he agreed to allow a TLC crew to spend what seemed like a hundred hours interviewing him and documenting his surgery. He hopes it will remove some of the stigma associated with the genetic disease neurofibromatosis...

He knows the tumors will grow back. There is no cure, no vaccine to prevent it.

"I don't like it, but there's not a lot I can do about it," Strube said. "Do I want to be a victor and an achiever? Or I can choose to be a victim and pity myself. I choose to be a victor."

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