LOOSE Women star Katie Piper recalled the shock reaction she faced following an acid attack that left her face severely burned.
The charity patron and broadcaster, 38, was the subject of discussion for Loose Women‘s Life Before Loose series, which profiles the varied lives of its panel members.
Katie, 38, told how people ordered her out of shops due to her visual difference[/caption]
Led by Christine Lampard, they chatted about Katie‘s family upbringing before putting the spotlight on her move to London in her Twenties.
Yet when she was 24, Katie fell victim to an acid attack, with the sulphuric acid that was thrown at her leaving her face severely burned.
Katie was rushed to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for emergency treatment after the attack, as the acid had severely burned her face and blinded her in her left eye.
She was put in an induced coma for 12 days and had to undergo skin graft procedures.
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It was also subject to a legal case as her ex boyfriend David Lynch arranged the attack, and had sickeningly organised for accomplice Stefan Sylvestre to wait outside her flat and throw sulphuric acid into her face.
Re-living the experience on today’s ITV daytime show, Katie told the panel how it was the reactions from the public which prompted her to film her documentary, My Beautiful Face.
She said of her visible differences: “I looked very different to how I look today.
“I had a plastic face mask, a shaved head, my face was a pinky-purple.
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“People asked me to leave shops and people shouted at me on the streets.
“I wasn’t famous, it’s not like I was known then.”
She added: “People didn’t understand why I wore a mask.
“I wanted to explain to people why I looked the way I did.
“I wanted to explain how I wasn’t contagious.”
Katie went on to found the Katie Piper Foundation to help burns victims.
The charity was established in 2009 and aims to deliver a high standard of intensive burns rehabilitation and scar management to victims across the UK.
She was then awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Honours list.
At the time, Katie’s attack was caught on CCTV and Sylvestre, who threw the acid at Katie, was arrested.
Later Lynch was arrested and the pair were both handed life sentences.
In 2018, his plea to the parole board received a positive response.
Sylvestre was released on Wednesday, October 10, 2018.
Katie had been given extra security by Strictly bosses ahead of his release, during her time on the show, and was spotted with a bodyguard during coffee breaks.
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Sylvestre was recalled to prison 13 months later, but was then cleared of taking vehicles without consent and a parole board said he could go free again in 2020.
In November 2018 it was revealed that Lynch had been awarded nearly £200,000 of taxpayer’s cash in legal aid.
She told the Loose Women panel it was motivation to start her Foundation and her documentary[/caption]
Katie beamed as she spoke to a fellow burns victim who now works for her foundation[/caption]
