Girl with rare age disorder may regain her youth and boyfriend

Being just 23 years old, Elena Melnikova looks like a woman in her fifties

Lena Melnikova, a 23-year-old girl from the city of Ioshkar-Ola, is currently undergoing treatment in the Moscow cosmetic clinic Beauty Plaza. The girl was diagnosed with a premature aging syndrome. The disease is considered incurable. Lena has been aging dramatically until recently. Being just 23 years old, she looked like a woman in her fifties. The treatment seems to have borne fruit. Lena had a facelift and a plastic surgery on her breast last week. Today Lena feels fine. She just can not believe her eyes as she keeps glancing at the mirror.

“A number of complex cosmetic procedures have been performed,” says Valery Eremenko, Lena's doctor at the clinic. “Various curative masks were applied to the patient's face, we also used ultrasound for physiotherapeutic purposes,” says he.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper ran a few stories about Lena and her treatment. The man who has been smitten by Lena Melnikova many years ago simply could not pass over the stories. Now he is looking forward to set eyes on her ASAP.

Tolik Bulatov and Lena Melnikova went to the same school. Tolik fell hard for her when he was in his tenth grade. But his infatuation had no effect on Lena and they never became lovers back then.

Tolik and Lena went separate ways when the school was done. He spent some time studying at an university in Kazan, then he got drafted and later worked as a driver. Lena was always on his mind. Once he saw he in his dream. He opened up his heart to her in that dream. He wrote a love letter to Lena on the following morning. At the time he had no idea that Lena had been in a bad way her looks had changed quite a lot.

They finally met on New Year's Eve in 2004. Tolik claims he did not see any drastic changes about her face. He was staring at her affectionately and to him she looked like the most beautiful woman in the world. They sat in her kitchen chatting till dawn. Then Tolik got up and planted a kiss on her lips. According to him, that kiss was very important to Lena. Lena told him later about it.

They returned to their hometown together. Lena was living alone in her apartment. The place was a mess. But Tolik did some clean-up and then he cooked a dinner for two. The rest of the night still feels like a movie to Tolik. He did not want to go away. But he left her after awhile because she never asked him to stay. He says Lena never told him about love or anything. He felt desperate and brokenhearted. He did not see her for six months. Then he learned of her disease from an article printed by our newspaper. “Why did not she tell me anything?” says the young man as he clenches his fists in desperation. “She still looks beautiful to me, and her looks are not so important because I love her anyway,” says he. He is still craving after her and hopes to stay with her till the end of time.

On the KP photo: Elena Melnikova

Vyacheslav Markov