Triumph of the spirit

Katie Piper’s path from carefree young model to burns patient and later to charity campaigner is well documented (Katie is pictured far left in a Marks & Spencer ad). PA Life Editor Colette Doyle caught up with her at the recent Office show to hear her story first-hand. “Yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come, we have only today, let us begin” – Mother Teresa. “Despair is suffering without meaning” – Viktor Frankl. “The past is a ghost, the future a dream, all we have is now” – Bill Cosby. The screen behind Katie Piper’s slender physique is peppered with motivational quotes as she begins her presentation to a packed audience of office professionals. She starts by recounting details of her idyllic childhood, growing up with her brother Paul and sister Suzy; she recalls family trips to the zoo and cleaning her dad’s car for pocket money, as her parents instilled in her the importance of working hard to get what you want out of life.

She took this lesson to heart, helping to fund her beauty therapy studies at college by working at Tesco in the evenings. Later, she left her home in Hampshire to pursue a modelling and TV career in London (although she modestly admits that you might never have heard of any of the satellite channels she worked for). She felt that invincibility so common to youth – “I thought disease and sickness only happened to other people”. Then a chance encounter on the internet brought Daniel Lynch into her life. (He is commonly referred to as her ex-boyfriend, although she is at pains to point out she only dated him for around two weeks.) He turned almost overnight from handsome suitor into psychotic bully, raping and beating her during a prolonged attack at a hotel they had checked in to together after a night out.

After she broke off their liaison, Lynch used these chilling words: “I’ve got you a present that will change your life for ever.” This boast translated in the most sick and twisted way possible when his associate Stefan Sylvestre threw industrial-strength sulphuric acid in Katie’s face on a street in the leafy London suburb of Golders Green. After the now infamous attackin March 2008, she was in a coma for 12 days, unable to swallow, her skin melted, “burning away my identity”.

Even in such a truly horrendous scenario, she still manages to unearth a glimmer of humour: “I remember I was going commando that day; I didn’t have any underwear on,” she reveals with a wry smile. She spent three months in hospital, during which time her third-degree burns were treated by pioneering surgeon Mr Mohammad Jawad, who used a revolutionary new type of treatment, rebuilding her own skin with a substitute called MatriDerm before performing a skin graft. The attack affected all her functions, from her sight to her digestion (her oesophagus was also badly burned) and she ended up visiting virtually every department in the hospital, including the physiotherapist, nutritionist and ophthalmologist, as well as the ear, nose and throat specialist.

In her darkest days, only able to communicate by writing, she handed her mother a note that read simply: “Kill me.” When she eventually left hospital, she was told she needed to wear a face mask to compress the scar tissue for a punishing 23 hours a day. This was not done for aesthetic considerations but, as she takes care to point out, because of function, as otherwise her facial muscles would have stiffened up and she would have been unable to perform the simple movements we take for granted, like closing her mouth properly.

Apart from enduring physical pain (she underwent a gruelling 112 surgical procedures in total), the fear she felt in the aftermath of such an appalling attack and the isolation of disfigurement, one of the hardest things to deal with was people’s reaction to her – from attracting admiring glances as a good-looking young woman to someone from whom people instinctively recoiled. She recalls being at the hospital, attending yet another round of appointments. “I was waiting for the lift and there was quite a lot of people, but when they saw me they decided to take the stairs instead. Maybe,” she continues, determined to lighten the mood a little, “they thought I had some kind of skin disease; anyway, I always had the lift to myself.”

The turning point came when she resolved to take back her life – “I wanted to live my life properly, not like I was the one in prison… my attackers could only take the surface, but the spirit and soul are untouchable.” She was invited to take part in a Channel 4 documentary telling her life story and decided to participate, even though she had the right to anonymity because of Lynch’s sexual assault on her. Katie: My Beautiful Face aired at the end of October 2009.

She was concerned about the reaction people would have to the programme, spending the night prior to it being shown in tears – “I was worried everyone would think I was a monster.” When the producer rang her with a figure of 3.8 million, she panicked initially: “I thought they meant 3.8 million complaints”; but it transpired the figure related to the number of viewers who had watched the show. In that instant, she says, her life changed – “I felt it was OK to be me again.”

She started to put coping mechanisms into place – “I wasn’t going to be a victim any longer, but a survivor,” she says determinedly. And, with her trademark playful humour, adds: “Rosé wine played a part in that.” She mourned the loss of her old face – even penning a tribute to it as part of her recovery process – but realised the need to move on and accept help. “Strength is being able to ask for help and not just go it alone,” she says.

She used humour to recover, watching endless TV box sets of stand-up comedians with her family to cheer her up. She listened to the advice of her surgeon, who had dealt with many similar cases in rural Pakistani communities and who told her that these women rebuilt their lives through 50% plastic surgery and 50% reliance on a support network.

The support of her own family clearly played a pivotal part in her recovery, from gently teasing her that she looked like a worm in her pressure suit to the moving account of how her sister would send her photos of clothes she’d seen in the high street so she could choose something nice to wear without the hassle of shopping.

Nowadays, she says she often comes across the attitude that people don’t want to share their problems with her, as they say: “Nothing can compare to what you went through”, but she isn’t keen on that attitude and prefers to acknowledge that everyone’s problems, however trivial, are relevant to them. “I still get annoyed by flat hair days,” she giggles. Underneath her upbeat attitude, there’s a serious message: “I don’t dress to hide my scars; those who don’t scar, die. I’m proud of being a survivor.”

With Katie’s career in the ascendant – her new beauty overhaul show, Bodyshockers, airs at the end of January on Channel 4 – and a baby on the way, it seems that the title of her new book, Things Get Better, could hardly be more apt.

KATIE: IN HER OWN WORDS
PA Life: With so much pressure from the media for women to conform to looking a certain way, what would be your advice for young women (or those returning to work after bringing up children) looking for a career in the business world?

Katie: “Never compare yourself to others; always work on being the best version of you that you can be. I believe in life we should run our own race. Your only competition is your mind, your fears and your doubts; anyone or anything else is irrelevant.”

PA Life: What reasons would you give to persuade our readers to lend their support to your charity, the Katie Piper Foundation?

Katie: “Our vision is to make it easier for people to live with burns and scars. My story has been talked about a lot and I am very grateful for the support the public has shown me, but there are many more ‘Katies’ among us who need the kind of help, support and advice that the Katie Piper Foundation provides. Whether you’re an individual or part of a company, a scholar or a parent, your support will help us make a positive difference to burns survivors through a series of life-changing treatments and workshops.”

PA Life: Your story has proved incredibly inspirational to a great deal of people; what do you feel are the most meaningful life skills you have acquired from your experience?

Katie: “My ordeal has taught me to be patient and tolerant and that sometimes in our darkest points in life we don’t need to make sense of everything right away and that remaining positive and holding on to smallest glimmer of hope can guide us back into the light.”