Miracle wedding for burns survivors Bianca & Troy
Miracle burns survivor Bianca thought no one could ever love her because of her scarred body
Bianca Aravena spent years thinking she’d missed out on her dreams of a wedding and a baby, but meeting Troy Hopkins changed everything for this brave young woman from Newcastle, NSW.
“Troy loves me and touches me on my right arm lovingly, like it doesn’t matter to him. This was the worst part of my burned body for me, so with him accepting me like this, I felt truly loved for the first time in my life,” she says.
Bianca, 32, had almost given up on love when she met father-of-two Troy on a dating site in 2010.
“He was lovely and a burns survivor himself, after a mishap around a bonfire put him in hospital with leg injuries,” she says, gazing lovingly at her ruggedly handsome new husband.
Bianca and Troy gave their family and friends the best
possible surprise when they held an impromptu wedding in Newcastle – after inviting them to what they thought was going to be an engagement party.
TEARS & GIGGLES
“We had 16 in our wedding party, so they all knew in advance, plus I had to fess up to interstate relatives or they wouldn’t have come,” says Bianca, who has adopted Troy’s surname.
“And of course, we couldn’t dress the eight bridesmaids and eight groomsmen in the same outfits because that would have given it away. But the rest of our guests were blown away when my maid-of-honour told everyone to go outside and Troy and I were standing under the arbour.”
Many cried tears of joy at the ceremony, but the quirky couple had to stifle giggles when they said “I do” as 35km/h winds played havoc with hairstyles, dresses and even the celebrant’s notes!
“Her paperwork was flapping around wildly in her hands during our special ‘handfasting’ [Celtic hand binding] ceremony,” smiles the new bride.
The newlyweds chose a boho rustic theme for their nuptials, using barrels for tables, vintage chairs, doilies and decorative milk bottles wrapped in hessian and adorned with sunflowers. Bianca wore an Alexandra dress from Tree of Life and made her own flower crown, and their wedding rings were engraved with, “Okay, I love you, bye,” which is how they finish every phone call to each other.
Bianca thought she would never experience the joy of her own wedding after
65 per cent of her body was burned in a teenage prank that went horribly wrong on May
11, 2001.
She was just 14 and enjoying a day at a park with two friends when she bumped into her former boyfriend and his mate, who were messing around with a lit ice-cream container filled with petrol.
MONTHS IN HOSPITAL
When one of them kicked it towards her, the flames engulfed Bianca, turning her into a human fireball.
“I was so traumatised when I realised I was on fire that I ran and crashed straight through the wooden boundary fence of the park into the backyard of someone’s house,” she says.
“My right side and back were the worst hit, particularly my right arm, which I had trouble looking at for a long time afterwards.
“I had burns to 65 per cent of my body and lay in an induced coma for three of my five months in hospital.”
As Bianca underwent 13 operations, she despaired of ever leading a regular life, confessing to her mum that she feared she would never have a “normal life with marriage and children”.
“Nobody will ever love me with scars like these,” she told her mum, before turning to tattoos to try to camouflage her scars.
“I was a very angry person for a long time, but I’m truly happy now,” she says, revealing that she and Troy hope to have a child if her scarred stomach will stretch enough to carry a baby.
“Troy is the love of my life and I put my happiness down to him. He gives me flowers and writes me love notes telling me how much I mean to him – things that no one has been able to do for me before.
“Many burns survivors think that no one will ever love them. I hope my story gives them hope that anything’s possible.”