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The father of supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio has revealed how his daughter is a real-life 'angel' who has helped him survive a 20-year battle with multiple sclerosis, Daily Mail Online can reveal.

While the Victoria's Secret Angel's modeling career has soared, she has secretly faced the heartache of her father's disabling disease and has done her best to support him and keep him positive.

Luis Ambrosio suffers extreme discomfort on a daily basis through MS and is hoping for a 'miracle' when results to a new treatment he is undergoing are revealed next month.

And today - in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Online - he reveals how his world-famous daughter is the reason he's able to continue fighting the unpredictable condition.

Luis says daily FaceTime calls with Ambrosio and his two grandchildren, Anja, seven and Noah, four, are a 'blessing' that help him get through each day.

Victoria's Secret Angel Alessandra Ambrosio (second right) has faced the heartache of watching her father Luis (left) battle Multiple Sclerosis for 20 years. Pictured above, Luis and Ambrosio pose with Ambrosio's sister, Aline (second left) and mother, Lucilda (right)

Luis, who lives in Erechim, Brazil, FacetTmes his daughter and his grandchildren, Anja, seven and Noah, who turns four on Fiday, every day. He said the FaceTime calls are a 'blessing' that get him through each day

Luis (pictured center with Alessandra, left, and her younger sister, Aline) said that Ambrosio's visits to Brazil are rare with her busy schedule, but she was able to travel home for Christmas last year

'Alessandra has always been there for me, no matter where she is in the world, she is an angel,' he said. 'Alessandra FaceTimes me just about every day to see how I am.

'It’s great to see her and I get to speak to the grandkids too, and ask about their homework. Speaking to the grandkids, all of them, is a blessing.'

Luis is filled with pride over his daughter's achievements and sheds some light on the modest upbringing of the 5ft 9in model and actress who has appeared in multi-million dollar ad campaigns for the likes of Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani and Christian Dior as well has appearing in a string of hit movies and TV shows.

Daily Mail Online has also unearthed a never-before-seen school photo of Ambrosio aged eight-years-old when the icon-to-be told her elementary school teacher she had ambitions of becoming a life-saving doctor NOT a famous model.

Whatever her dreams as a child, the woman, who today is regularly branded one of the world’s sexiest, still displays a loving, caring side that makes her the apple of her father’s eye.

And dad Luis says his daughter was so worried that his MS is hereditary that she had her own children tested - thankfully they were given the all clear.

He also reveals the Brazilian beauty stopped smoking due to health concerns and for the sake of her two young kids.

And it was her father's battle with MS that inspired Ambrosio to become an ambassador for the US-based National Multiple Sclerosis Society in 2010.

MS is a disease of the central nervous system which disrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and the body.

It affects 2.5million world-wide and 400,000 people in the United States. There is no known cure.

Ambrosio said of her ambassador role: 'My dad lives with Multiple Sclerosis, I travel the world and no matter where I go I meet people living with MS.

'You never know the beauty of movement until you lose it. MS stops movement.'

For Luis, 57, who lives with his wife and Ambrosio's mom Lucilda, 56, in Erechim in southern Brazil - the small town where they raised the 35-year-old beauty and her younger sister, Aline, 32 - he blames four decades running two gas stations for his condition.

He believes the fumes from the fuel and the stress of the job are major contributing factors.

Luis said that Ambrosio's visits to Brazil are rare, but she was able to travel home for Christmas last year. She is here pictured in 2014 with her sister Aline, father Luiz, mother Lucilda, plus Aline and Alessandra's children and husbands (Jamie Mazur, Alessandra's husband, and Aline's husband, Eduardo Deboni)

Luis, 57, who lives with his wife Lucilda, 56, in Erechim in southern Brazil blames his Multiple Sclerosis on four decades running two gas stations (one station pictured above)

Luis believes the fumes from the fuel at the gas stations (one pictured above) and the stress of the job are major contributing factors to his illness

Today Luis still manages his two gas stations in Erechim, working 11 hour days to make sure they are being run properly.

Speaking from his home, he said: 'When I was diagnosed with MS in the late 1990s my world fell apart. It was devastating.

'I felt the ground disappear from beneath me. It was a horrible time. My world just ended.

'I do think it could have been working 40 years at the gas stations that caused it. Maybe it has been the fumes from the fuel and the stress of the job.

WHAT IS MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS? 

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system.

MS disrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and the body.

It affects 2.5million world-wide and 400,000 people in the United States. 

There is no known cure for the debilitating disease.

'I also had an aunt who had it so we did worry it could be hereditary. Alessandra got her two children tested and they are okay, thankfully.

'Obviously Alessandra and her sister are fine. They never worked at the gas stations.'

Luis said MS mainly affects his right leg and although he is able to still drive he says he has to 'think' to make the limb work properly.

He says he is currently trying a new treatment involving taking large amounts of vitamin D, which, he says, has helped him get a 'little better'.

He is taking 200,000 IU (international units) of vitamin D a day in specially made pills prepared by a pharmacy in São Paulo.

The six-month course of pills ends in June at which point doctors will be able to tell whether they have worked in tackling the disease.

'We’re all hoping for a miracle, of course,' he said.

'I have to be careful not to have any dairy products because it can damage the kidneys, but apart from that it’s not too much of a problem.

'I’ll be tested when the course ends to see if it has been a success.'

Luis said seeing her father with MS was an eye-opener for his daughter who now takes her and her family’s health very seriously.

Luis says MS mainly affects his right leg and although he is able to still drive he says he has to 'think' to make the limb work properly

Ambrosio, pictured here with her son and her husband, Jamie Mazur, was 'gifted' from a young age, her father said

'Alessandra has now given up smoking for the sake of her kids,' he said. 'She used to have the odd cigarette but now she doesn’t.'

He added that he hopes mom-of-two Ambrosio will have more children.

'Alessandra has always said she wants four or five children so we’re hoping she has more, but she isn’t pregnant at the moment,’ he gushed.

Blaming his daughter’s stratospheric career for a lull in new grandchildren, he said: 'She is just so busy right now.

'Her sister is trying to have more children but not Alessandra. One day, we hope she does of course.’

Luis remembers his daughter being ‘gifted’ from a young age growing up in Erechim and her potential as a model was clear to see.

But he recalls how the young girl always wanted to be a doctor not a model.

Although very pretty as a child, Ambrosio didn’t have the confidence in her looks because of her ‘jug ears’, her dad recalls.

'When she was younger she never said she wanted to be a model, it was always about being a doctor,’ he said. 

'She had big jug ears as a youngster too.

'She had an operation to pin them back and there was a complication which made her quite ill. It really put her off having surgery.

'Ultimately though it helped give her the confidence to be a model.’

Ambrosio herself has in the past told of how she is 'freaked out' by cosmetic surgery after the botched ear pinning procedure left her in severe pain. 

Ambrosio herself has in the past told of how she is 'freaked out' by cosmetic surgery after the botched ear pinning procedure left her in severe pain

The brunette beauty (pictured left as a toddler) said that she went under the knife at the age of 11 (pictured right around the time of the ear pinning) because she didn't like the way her ears 'stuck out'

Ambrosio’s former teacher Dirce Kozak (left in a 1989 class photo with Ambrosio) also recalls Ambrosio's ambition to be a doctor before she went on to become a super model

In December, 2013 she revealed to Net-A-Porter's The Edit that she went under the knife at the age of 11 because she didn't like the way her ears 'stuck out'.

However, the doctor who she found in her hometown had only carried out the surgery once before and the second attempt did not go as planned.

'I was a guinea pig. The first few nights, it felt like someone had cut off my ears,’ she recalled.

Despite several follow-up mini-surgeries to correct the problem Ambrosio went on to begin her professional modeling career age 15.

'She seemed to have a gift when she was younger,’ Luis recalls 'At the local carnival she was always picked to be carnival queen because of her looks.

'She was popular with guys but was too busy for a boyfriend back then.'

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Ambrosio’s former teacher Dirce Kozak also recalls the young girls ambition to break in to the medical world before her dreams of modeling took hold.

'She was a very clever little girl, very talkative too,' said Kozak. 'I remember her wanting to be a doctor and she was bright enough to fulfill that, if she had wanted to.

'She was a leader, too. If we ever had any group activities she would always take charge and be the one in control.

'She had a lot of self-confidence back then. Her sister Aline was much more quiet than her.'

She added: 'I taught her basic writing and math. She was a happy kid, she loved to learn. Never in a million years would I have expected her to go on and be a supermodel.'

Kozak, now 55, also taught her to dance in a Polish music and dance group called Jupem, still based in Erechim.

'There is a lot of Polish ancestry in the area and Jupem was created to give the children a chance to appreciate that,' she explained. 

Kozak said Ambrosio (top right) was 'a clever little girl' and also a 'leader' who had a lot of self-confidence growing up

 Kozak (pictured earlier this year), now 55, also taught her to dance in a Polish music and dance group called Jupem, still based in Erechim.

Mauricio Anony (left with Ambrosio), present head teacher at Ambrosio's junior high school, Collegio Marista, showed off the supermodel's great attendance record and said she was 'remembered fondly' 

Anony said that students currently at the school (pictured) hold Ambrosio as an example of 'how hard work makes success happen'

'Alessandra’s parents wanted her to make more friends, too, so she joined the group and took to it straight away.

'She loved to dance as a little girl.'

Mauricio Anony, present head teacher at the school, Collegio Marista, proudly showed off Alessandra’s report card and attendance records to Daily Mail Online.

'I wasn’t at the school when she was a pupil but she is remembered very fondly,’ the teacher said. 'Her grades show she was a good student. We are all very proud of her at the school.

'The present pupils appreciate she was a former student and she is definitely an example of hard work making success happen.

'She’s been invited back here to speak to the children and we hope it’s going to happen the next time she visits home.'

There are not many people in this small Brazilian town who don’t have praise for the successful model.

A former neighbor remembers how the caring star would read to her two grandchildren to comfort them after their mother was killed in a terrible car accident.

The supermodel shares the same birthday as her one-time neighbor, Persiolina Bartmar, 79, and still calls her each year on their big day to wish her well.

Mrs Bartmar recalls how Ambrosio was a pretty teenager when she would read to her grandchildren Nicole, then aged three, and Victoria, eight months.

In 1994 their mother, Mara Alves Bartmar, died aged 26 in a car accident in Erechim.

Fighting back tears while looking at a treasured photo of her late daughter, Mrs Bartmar said: 'It was a terrible time, of course, when my daughter died.

'But Alessandra wanted to help however she could. She was a little angel, a sweetheart, such as pretty little girl.

'She was just a young girl when the accident happened. She would come to the house and read comic books to the girls, entertaining them with funny voices and stories.

'It took their minds off what had happened. It was such a kind act. I’ll always be thankful for it and I will never forget it. It was such a help at the time. 

Persiolina Bartmar (sefond right), 79, a former neighbor of supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio from Erechim, Brazil. As a child, Alessandra would read stories to her grandchildren, Victoria (left) and Nicole (right), after the girls' mother, Mara Bartmar, died in a car accident. The young woman second left is a friend of the family

Persiolina also shares the same birthday as Alessandra and Alessandra calls her most years to wish her well

This is the former family home of Ambrosio in Erechim, Brazil, where she spent her childhood, years before becoming a supermodel

Ambrosio still visits her hometown, and her father, Luis, said she's 'still very normal' when she visits and spends time with her childhood friends

'Even now my granddaughters remember her kindness. They like to tell their friends how Alessandra is more than a Victoria’s Secret angel.'

She added: 'Alessandra moved away when she was young to start modeling. But by coincidence our birthdays are on the same date, April 11.

'She has called me almost every year since to wish me well. It always amazes me and I am so happy that she remembers.

'She asks me how I am and how my granddaughters are doing. I always ask her how her own children are.’

Visits back to Erechim are rare these days due to Ambrosio’s busy schedule.

Her father Luis said the model came back last Christmas and wanted to come for Easter but work got in the way.

'She’s still very normal when she comes back to Erechim,' her father said. 'She has the same group of friends she hangs out with.

'They all come over to the house and spend the day just talking and laughing. Most of them are married now with kids, some are doctors and nurses.

'Alessandra loves to go to the coast when she is back to surf, too. She still has six or seven boards in Florianopolis on the coast where she has a home. She is a great surfer.

'If she could ever have surfed professionally, I am sure she would have.'

Luis said Alessandra may not be able to attend this summer’s Olympics in Rio because her close friend, fellow Brazilian model Ana Beatriz Barros, is getting married at a secret location.

'Alessandra is due to be a bridesmaid at Beatriz’s wedding,' Luis revealed. I know it is happening around the time of the Olympics so I am not sure if she will be able to attend the games or not.

'The Zika virus here in Brazil worries her of course but she says it won’t stop her visiting Brazil when she can.'

As for his beloved daughter making a permanent switch back to her homeland, Luis is doubtful.

'I don’t think she will ever move back to Brazil because America is her home now. She has her house there and Jamie, her husband, is a great guy.

'My wife and I will travel to see them and the kids whenever we can and I know she will visit us, too.

'I’m lucky my family has been there to support me and get back to health.'

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