Katie went onto graduate from Nottingham University with a 2:1 in sociology
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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.