A woman who had 70 operations after strangers doused her in acid while she was volunteering in Zanzibar now feels "confident" in her scars.
Katie Gee, 29, was just 18 and travelling in Stone Town when two men on a motorbike threw acid at her in an unprovoked attack.
Katie suffered 35 per cent burns to the right side of her face, and body and her right ear was "burnt to a crisp" and she had 70 procedures over the next three years to recover.
She spent the first few years after the attack "uncomfortable" with her new appearance but has now found "confidence" with her scars.
Katie, who has a background in real estate, from north west London, said: "I remember going out for lunch and bumped into a friend's sister and she didn't recognise me.
Katie Gee, 29, was just 18 and travelling in Stone Town when two men on a motorbike threw acid at her in an unprovoked attack.
Katie suffered 35 per cent burns to the right side of her face, and body and her right ear was "burnt to a crisp" and she had 70 procedures over the next three years to recover.
She spent the first few years after the attack "uncomfortable" with her new appearance but has now found "confidence" with her scars.
Katie, who has a background in real estate, from north west London, said: "I remember going out for lunch and bumped into a friend's sister and she didn't recognise me.
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FunTranscript
00:00On my way out for dinner, two men drove past
00:29and threw acid on my right hand side and drove off straight away.
00:34This left me with 35% burns.
00:36Then in that hospital for years and years after.
00:39So I run straight away to a bathroom.
00:41I'm screaming my head off, asking for help.
00:43And then a couple, Nadine and Sam came to help me and brought
00:47a bunch of bottled water.
00:48Like loads of locals and tourists, like just watching me outside the bathroom.
00:53I like some of them were like taking photos and things.
00:55So Nadine was like, basically shielding me.
00:59After a while of washing myself in the shower, we go to the first hospital.
01:02This hospital in Stone Town is honestly a complete shit show.
01:06Hardly any staff working there.
01:07And there I'm like dousing myself with saline, which is basically
01:10disinfectant, salty water.
01:12Then run out of saline and there's no running water.
01:15Next port of call is to get running water straight away.
01:19And the next best hospital is in Dar es Salaam, which is in mainland Tanzania.
01:24And the only way to get there is to fly.
01:26We head straight to a hotel, which is really nearby.
01:28I ended up using their poolside shower.
01:31A good few hours I was standing under these freezing cold showers.
01:34Three hours in the morning, I'm obviously not wearing any clothes
01:37because they'd all been burned off.
01:38I'm shaking uncontrollably and everyone's like, she needs to go inside.
01:42And with a lot of coordination later, we are on our way to the
01:46main hospital in Dar es Salaam.
01:48We get in an ambulance.
01:49We go straight to the runway and we get on the airplane.
01:51As we land in Dar es Salaam, I am projectile vomiting on the runway.
01:56I'll spare you the rest of the details, but it was honestly just a shit show.
02:00It was a lot calmer.
02:01I had so many painkillers.
02:03And then through insurance, we are then told we can get on a
02:06medical airplane back to the UK.
02:08Get straight in an ambulance on the medical airplane.
02:10There's two doctors with me.
02:12And as soon as we get on, I say to them, like, please just give me drugs.
02:15Knock me out.
02:15I don't want to be awake for any of this journey.
02:17Met with an ambulance and my mom and whoever on the runway.
02:21Straight to Chelsea Westminster Hospital where I was an inpatient there.
02:25Get ready with me while I talk about what it was like to date
02:28with burns after the attack.
02:30So one piece of advice that Katie Piper gave me was you could go on a bad date.
02:34They might hate you because of your personality.
02:36Like don't put it down to the fact that you have scars or whatever.
02:40And it's so true.
02:41Like you never really know why someone's not into you.
02:43When it is you and when they're on your body, it is really hard
02:46to keep convincing yourself that.
02:47I think of a few examples of guys who it probably had put off, whether
02:52that be like the actual trauma, my parents or anything.
02:56And those are the kinds of people I wouldn't want to be spending
02:58my energy on anyway, obviously.
03:00So it's a really tough one.
03:01Like dating is really hard to navigate anyway.
03:05So it doesn't help.
03:05I had this added layer attached to the already hard world that is dating.
03:10Something that was really important for me was making sure that my scars
03:14were obvious on my hinge profile.
03:16I had a really bad fear that I was going to be like catfishing someone.
03:21If they were to turn up on a date with me and then I, if I was to look
03:23different or they didn't realize I had burned scars or anything, I'd be
03:26so paranoid that they would just turn around and be mean to me in public.
03:29With trying to find a partner also my wants and needs of what I wanted
03:34in someone else really changed.
03:36I need them to be like really kind and obviously understanding
03:41and have like emotional maturity.
03:43I remember my first date back dating after the attack was actually one of
03:47the worst dates I've ever had.
03:49And I'm surprised that didn't put me off for life.
03:51I'll definitely be doing more dating type videos and maybe some
03:54experiences I had while dating.