When Katie Piper was young, she aspired to be a model. She was committed to her dream until she was violently attacked by her ex-boyfriend and left with life-changing injuries. Her world changed dramatically one fateful day in March 2008, but nearly a decade later she has made a remarkable recovery…
Piper first met her ex-boyfriend David Lynch via Facebook in February 2008. He was good looking and they shared 30 mutual friends, so Piper accepted his ‘friend request’. Lynch, who claimed to be a Mixed Martial Arts expert, had seen Piper whilst she worked as a ring-girl at the fights. Piper, who usually attracted flashy “sleazy” men that wanted her as a “trophy wife”, thought that Lynch might be different.
They began to see each other regularly. Piper was smitten with the smart, attractive Lynch despite his bizarre behaviour. On their first date, he insisted on escorting Piper to the bathroom, and, when they weren’t together, he bombarded her with incessant messages and calls. A week into her relationship, he told her that he loved her and began to open up about his difficult childhood. Piper felt sorry for him, but she also started to think something was wrong…
As their relationship continued, Lynch began to become aggressive. On one occasion, he became angry when a waiter at a doughnut shop called Piper ‘darling’. This behaviour prompted Piper to dump him after just two weeks whilst they were out shopping together. Lynch requested that they spend the rest of the day together and booked a hotel room for that night. Piper agreed to stay with him, but little did she know something awful was about to happen…
The pair had a lovely dinner together, but in the lift on the way back to the hotel room he turned to Piper and said: “You’re not even all that in the flesh, are you?” Once in the hotel room, Lynch tried to get intimate, but Piper refused. So, instead, Lynch raped her and threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone. But his reign of terror wasn’t over yet…
A few days later, Lynch told Piper to go to a coffee shop in order to read an email he had sent her, as her internet was broken. Little did she know what would happen next. On her way to the coffee shop in north London, Piper saw a man approaching her with a coffee cup in his hands. Thinking he was going to ask her for money, she reached into her bag for some change. But then the man threw liquid onto her face. Piper experienced an “explosion of agony” as the acid melted her skin.
“I heard a horrible screaming sound, like an animal being slaughtered. Then I realised it was coming from me,” Piper remembers. She was put in an induced coma for 12 days and went through a total of 40 surgical operations. When she saw her face for the first time, she was horrified.
Piper then slowly came to terms with her injuries. “I had the worst injuries the medical team had ever seen,” she recalled. “They sliced away my entire face, removing the dead and burned skin.” In order to try and smooth her skin, Piper wore a plastic mask for 23 hours a day.
Piper decided that she wasn’t going to remain silent after her ordeal. She wanted to raise awareness for the treatment of burns victims, and so she waived her right to anonymity. She featured in a documentary on Channel 4 titled Katie: My Beautiful Face and established the Katie Piper Foundation, which aims to raise awareness for those with burns and disfiguring injuries.
Not only that, Piper married her boyfriend, Richard Sutton, in 2015 who had stood loyally by her side through many hours of surgeries and medical appointments. Together they have on daughter and are currently expecting their second child.
Piper’s story has inspired millions across the globe, and it is only just getting started!
Source: viralthread
