Nihal Bitla (2001 – 2016)

Nihal Bitla  was a Mumbai teenager who had been suffering from a rare genetic disease that causes the body to age eight times faster than normal. He was the face of India's awareness campaign against progeria. Bitla made headlines while trying to locate 60 other Indian progeria sufferers to participate in a clinical trial in Boston with him. He ran an active social media campaign to raise awareness about the disease. Bitla shot into the limelight after he met Bollywood actor Aamir Khan in December after the Facebook page "Humans of Bombay" highlighted his story and the fact that he was a "super fan" of the star. He died in hospital on Tuesday in the southern state of Telangana, where he had gone to attend a wedding. Media reports said he may have become dehydrated in the extreme heat there.

Progeria or Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, from which Nihal suffered, causes accelerated aging in children, leading to premature death mostly due to heart attacks. It is incurable and has an incidence of one in four million. Nihal, while aged 15, had a body that felt like it was beyond 60 years old. There are 124 other such children who have been identified with progeria globally. The Progeria Research Foundation, however, estimated there are over 250 such children fighting this disease of which 60 are from India.