Lois’ Story

Before my attack, the issues associated with scarring hadn’t occurred to me. I wasn’t aware of both the physical and the psychological impact it can have on people – not until it happened to me.

Now I can talk about it and be proud of who I am and the scars I bare. But there were times that I was too scared to leave the house,wanting to hide my face from the rest of the world, shutting out my friends and family.

On 24 November 2017 I was attacked. I don’t want to go into detail about that night as it was so traumatic. To be honest, I don’t want to revisit the pain and emotions I felt because it has taken all my strength to get to where I am today. I’m scarred physically (face and hands) but the mental impact was more severe.

After the attack I suffered with PTSD – having vivid flashbacks of the assault. I felt fearful when going out that it would happen again.

I have had a lot of surgery to reduce my scar and feel much more confident. I have my good days when I want to leave my house without any makeup and that’s completely fine, but there are other days when I do want to cover up with camouflage, and that’s also fine. But generally, I’ve accepted my scars and now I embrace them – it’s a new me really, a new look. I now have a beautiful little girl and couldn’t be happier.

I feel that a lot of people don’t talk about scarring because they feel uncomfortable, which breeds negative thoughts and comments. The work that The Scar Free Foundation is doing – not only to shine light on the problem of scarring – but to also show how a scar free world is possible within a generation, is incredible.

To know that the trauma caused by scarring, and the pain I felt from having to wear my journey on my face, could all be eradicated in the future is amazing.