VIE Portland was so low she no longer felt life was worth living.

Suffering from a skin condition, her feet were so sore she had to wear men’s shoes and she had so little confidence that at times she could not leave the house.

“I would always shy away from the limelight,” she says.

“I felt fat and ugly. I was like a lot of women who aren’t the size they think they should be. I’d wear baggy black clothes all the time, and I’d hide away. I’d look like a potato sack most of the time.

“I suffer from bipolar, endometriosis and skeletal problems in my spine.

“I was really ill with the bipolar seven years ago, a complete mess. I hit that very low point and it’s from then I started thinking I have got to change things and the only person I could rely on was me.”

Vie discovered burlesque and she says saucy moves, tassels, curve-hugging corsets and stilettos, have changed her life for the better.

Today the 43-year-old has not only learned to channel the pain of her illnesses but love her size 18 body and even become a burlesque instructor, making a living out of teaching other women how taking their clothes off can help them love their bodies.

Vie, who has won an Inspiring Person in Burlesque Award, said: “Without burlesque I don’t know where I’d be.

“I feel like a different person.

“I have more confidence and for the first time I feel I can be who I want to be.

“It’s sad so many people apologise for being who they are just because people have perceptions of what a burlesque performer or dancer should look like.

“Finally I can say this is me and this is who I have always wanted to be and I love it.”

Vie said a difficult childhood led to her confidence plummeting.

But as well as her low self-esteem, she had an undiagnosed skin condition which meant continual blisters formed on her hands, feet and in her mouth.

It was blamed on perspiration, her skin being too soft, too hard and even wrongly diagnosed as eczema.

Vie, who lives in Southampton, explains: “I’ve had blisters on my feet where they engulfed my toes, covered the whole base of my heel and over the back of my foot. I grew up feeling very hard done by because of it. I got bullied because of it.”

That changed when aged 28, Vie was diagnosed with Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex – Weber Cockayne (EBS) and was able to given advice to manage it herself.

Now an ambassador and chair for DEBRA Hampshire Committee, the charity that helped her, she became determined to learn to love life.

“I was watching Singing in the Rain because I love musicals and a sign flashed up about burlesque and it got me thinking ‘I wonder if people still do burlesque?’”

Vie looked on the net and began taking burlesque classes in Southampton.

“I felt so nervous but I had nothing to worry
about.

“I loved it, I loved the fact it was women of all ages and sizes. For a lot of women who do burlesque, what we do is a challenge to what we used to be.”

Vie, who has performed in the House of Burlesque show four times, and puts on shows, says her passion has often been the subject of neighbourhood gossip.

She giggles: “I’ve had it before where I’ve heard people say that slightly large 40 something woman is a stripper and it does make me laugh.

“Many people don’t know what burlesque is. The true meaning of it is to parody, to mock
or mimic. It’s about telling a story whether that’s a funny story or a sad story or for some
people it’s the whole showgirl thing, getting the glitz and the glamour.

“It’s a fine line between burlesque and stripping. You don’t have to strip.

“Yes, I do take my clothes off but I am always covered and really all the audience is seeing is
my arms and the top part of my boobs.

“Burlesque is a lot about illusion. There is an element of sex to it but there’s also
an element of taking the micky out of sex too.”

In fact Vie’s acts are comedy and include her dressing as a homeless person and pulling chocolate bars from her underwear, and dressing as a Little Red Riding Hood character and pulling a man from the audience to protect her, only for her to turn into a giant spider and attack him.

Vie, who also teaches vintage dance classes, says performing for her is a way to forget about her
debilitating illnesses which aren’t necessarily physically visible – and she will not stop.

“Yes I am in pain and often my feet are covered in dressings.

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt but you have to get on with it. For me, my feet feel like I’ve got pebbles under the skin. On a good day it feels like pebbles, on a bad day it feels like
someone has sewn them in with a blunt needle.

“But I am doing it because I can. Some days can be hard and embarrassing, but as much as
you can – live life to the full.

“All these things in my life, I don’t remember not loving them but now I am living them and it’s just fantastic.”

Dance night

Vie is organising a vintage dance night and raffle in aid of DEBRA which supports people with the genetic skin blistering condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).

It will take place on Saturday, October 25 from 7.30pm at Peartree United Reformed Church in Woolston and will feature music from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Tickets are available from ticketsource.co.uk/date/119764

For more information about DEBRA go to debra.org.uk