{"id":31521,"date":"2026-02-25T12:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=31521"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:04:39","slug":"parents-of-hong-kongs-girl-behind-the-face-share-their-story-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=31521","title":{"rendered":"Parents of Hong Kong\u2019s \u2018Girl Behind the Face\u2019 share their story for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Mui Thomas is, by any measure, a remarkable woman.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Now 33, she is believed to be the world\u2019s fourth-oldest survivor of Harlequin ichthyosis. This extremely rare genetic disorder causes the body to be covered with thick plates of skin \u2013 a condition so severe that when Mui was born in Hong Kong in 1992, it was considered universally fatal.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">She has survived medical emergencies that would have killed lesser fighters. Despite her ongoing health struggles, she has become a rugby coach, a certified yoga instructor, an ambassador for the yoga-themed charity <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Yama Foundation<\/span>, a public speaker, and an advocate for those with visible differences \u2013 roles that earned her two Spirit of Hong Kong awards in 2016.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">She took part in the fitness competition Hyrox in July 2025 and ran her first half-marathon at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon event in January. Many of these achievements are captured on \u201cThe Girl Behind the Face\u201d website and social media accounts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mui Thomas takes part in her first Hyrox competition, in July 2025. Photo: Instagram\/mui_thomas92\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/02\/24\/5aacf432-6fe1-47ae-ae73-1091851b3b4f_681a3e5d.jpg\" title=\"Mui Thomas takes part in her first Hyrox competition, in July 2025. Photo: Instagram\/mui_thomas92\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1ixmelf e1gf69pb1\">Mui Thomas takes part in her first Hyrox competition, in July 2025. Photo: Instagram\/mui_thomas92<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But for most of that journey, her parents \u2013 themselves remarkable people \u2013 have remained visible by association, but invisible as individuals. Their trauma, exhaustion and complicated history: none of it was ever really asked about.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cPeople would always ask, \u2018How\u2019s Mui?\u2019 Or go straight into assuming we should be sad and depressed and all over the place,\u201d says her father, Rog Thomas. \u201cVery occasionally, you\u2019d get asked, \u2018How are you guys?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3344406\/parents-hong-kongs-girl-behind-face-share-their-story-first-time?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mui Thomas is, by any measure, a remarkable woman. Now 33, she is believed to be the world\u2019s fourth-oldest survivor of Harlequin ichthyosis. This extremely&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[3507,201,3569,5010,112,401,1199,654],"class_list":["post-31521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-face","tag-girl","tag-hong","tag-kongs","tag-parents","tag-share","tag-story","tag-time","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}