Ali­son Rich works for Chang­ing Faces, a char­ity sup­port­ing and rep­re­sent­ing peo­ple with facial dis­fig­ure­ments. In advance of her talk at London’s Well­come Col­lec­tion as part of their Wel­come to my World series, she invited the BBC’s Dan Bell to fol­low her daily com­mute to wit­ness the reac­tions of fel­low pas­sen­gers to her own dis­fig­ure­ment.

What for every­one else is a momen­tary shock, fol­lowed by a double-take, for Ali­son is con­stant under­min­ing scrutiny.

As suited work­ers file on to the drizzle-stained plat­form in south Lon­don, she is met with a series of sec­ond glances. One man stares openly, his mouth slightly open, eye­brows knit­ted in fas­ci­na­tion. A woman looks away, her face full of pity.

“Some peo­ple we work with tell us peo­ple lit­er­ally stand back in hor­ror. But for me it’s that con­stant slow drip, drip and you can imag­ine what that does to some­one who is not emo­tion­ally equipped.”