大象传媒

Every day, Mary Ann Sieghart blanks friends and colleagues in the street - some people think she is the rudest woman they know. She also claims to be the 'worst lobby correspondent in the world'.

She has prosopagnosia, more commonly known as face blindness. Sufferers have problems perceiving or remembering faces.

Stephen Fry and former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt are two of the well known people who have the condition and here they share how they've found ways of coping with it to get by in their careers.

In extreme cases, some sufferers don't recognise family members or even their own reflection.

Concerns are rising that it could lead to issues in security, justice and misdiagnoses. Could technology or even hormonal treatments help improve her ability? Or will the best solution simply be to make people more aware?

Produced at 大象传媒 Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in July 2016.