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'Good as gold' - Meet the courageous Kiwi on a life-changing journey after pioneering surgery

February 18, 2018

"He was upset and frightened. His facial bones were about to be broken, shifted and put back in a way meant to make him look "normal".

The day before I met him, Carlos Askew punched a hole in his bedroom wall. He was upset and frightened about his upcoming surgery. His facial bones were about to be broken, shifted and put back in a way that was meant to make him look "normal".

Who wouldn't be frightened at age just 21, facing complex, brutal surgery, never before performed in New Zealand.

Yes, Carlos looks odd. He suffered in his mother's womb from her drug habits and has been bullied all his life.

But Carlos is a survivor. Rather than being beaten down by school kids calling him 'Shovel Face', he joined in the joke, and laughed along with them.

He's survived, playing make-believe - imagining he's a of kind superhero, admired for his disfigurements, daring to use his odd-ball charisma to get people to like and look up to him.

"What do you think you are going to look like after this surgery?", I asked him in a recent interview.

"More gorgeous than I do now," replies Carlos cheerily.

Nearly every query about his mood or wellbeing is met with "good as gold" or "no worries".

But under his mask, Carlos' true feelings are raw; anger about how his birth mother behaved while pregnant with him, hurt at the way he's been stared at and bullied, sadness that he's never had sex or even been kissed.

But most of all, when I first met him at home in Havelock North, he was afraid of the pioneering surgery he was about to undergo. Surgery, that on one hand could make him look "normal", or on the other hand could erase the only facial features he's ever known.

As I hold his hand just before he's wheeled into theatre he turns to our camera with a thought for the rest of us: "Whatever struggles you have just go for it and just smash it. Life's not easy… but have a smile on your face and it will all be sweet."

"But how are you feeling, Carlos?"

"Good as gold!"

Join Carlos on his courageous journey, when he reveals, a few months after his surgery, what's now under his mask.

Watch the full interview with Carlos tonight on SUNDAY, TVNZ1

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