Meet the personal trainer who only sweats on one side of her body due to rare condition
Meet the personal trainer who only sweats on one side of her body due to a rare condition - which can prompt questions from clients. Sarah Burford, 34, developed Harlequin syndrome after having a benign tumour removed in 2015. Surgeons also removed sweat glands in the top left corner of her body, giving her the issue. Sarah, from Gloucester, says she often gets questions from clients during workouts. And while she was initially embarrassed, she now recognises that the condition just makes her "unique". Sarah, from Gloucester, said: "It's a really weird sensation when one side of your face is boiling and the other is freezing cold. "I obviously sweat a lot doing the job I do. Seeing clients reactions always makes me laugh." Sarah was concerned when she started experiencing rib pain in December 2015. She went to the hospital, and x-rays showed a ganglioneuroma, a benign tumour, growing near her rib cage. Surgeons deflated her lung to access her chest wall and remove the tumour. But they also had to remove the sweat glands in the top left corner of her body. Sarah was then diagnosed with Harlequin syndrome - an absence of sweating and flushing of skin on one side. She's been living with the condition for eight years and has grown used to the weird sensation of a sudden mixture of hot and cold. And she's not let if affect her livelihood. The mum-of-one said: "I'm a personal trainer and train six days a week, so sweating is a regular occurrence for me. "When I do lots of high-intensity workouts, the right side of my face gets boiling and sweaty, and the left side is completely untouched. "It's a strange sensation, but after eight years, I'm pretty used to it now. "When I'm on runs with clients they'll sometimes notice it, so I then have to explain the whole story behind it. "It's more prominent in my life than it would usually be because of my job, but I've learnt to embrace it - it makes me unique which is never a bad thing."