This article is part of HuffPosts Project Zero campaign, a yearlong series on neglected tropical diseases and efforts to fight them.

AMAOBU, Nigeria When Ndidi Ekeanyawus husband saw her severely swollen legs, he would turn away.

He gets angry with me when he sees my leg and says it puts him off me, she said, gingerly raising her long skirt to show hardened scars covering legs twice their normal size.

The 37-year-old mother of two went to a traditional healer in Nigerias Imo state. The healer would make cuts all over the swollen flesh, then pour on a tonic that made her legs burn.

Someone from her village, Amadou, had told her the method worked, and she feared her husbands rejection. So, despite the extraordinary pain, Ekeanyawu returned to the healer every fortnight for six years.

Ekeanyawu was suffering from a painful and horribly disfiguring disease called lymphatic filariasis commonly known as elephantiasis, because it can cause peoples limbs to grow, harden and fold like an elephants.