Train crash survivor: “I helped Katie Piper deal with her acid attack”
After enduring devastating injuries in a high-speed crash, Pam Warren now helps others through their traumas
Nineteen years ago, Pam Warren survived one of the worst rail accidents in British history, in which 31 people died and 523 were wounded. Pam, now 51, was one of the most severely injured. She was travelling in the first carriage on the high-speed train into London when it collided with another one leaving Paddington. She was engulfed by a fireball and left in a coma for three weeks. Doctors didn’t expect her to survive.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCARS
Incredibly, she did – but the surgery to repair her burnt skin meant she needed to wear a plastic mask for 23 hours a day for 18 months, leading to her being dubbed “The Lady In The Mask”. And while her physical wounds took years to heal, her psychological scars were even tougher. In 2001, she tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose and was subsequently diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. But she battled
back to her old self after founding the Paddington Survivors Group.
Meeting former soldier Simon Weston – who was badly burned in the Falklands War – through the Scar Free Foundation charity was also a turning point for her. And after embarking on a cognitive behavioural therapy course, Pam, who used to be a financial advisor, retrained as a motivational speaker and mentor.
One of the people who has benefited from her mentoring is Strictly Come Dancing contestant Katie Piper, who credits Pam as being the turning point in her recovery. In March 2008, mum-of-two Katie, then an aspiring model, survived a brutal acid attack ordered by her jealous ex-boyfriend, Daniel Lynch, causing major damage to her face and blindness in one eye.
Pam and Katie met three months after the attack and Pam helped her come to terms with having to wear a plastic mask.
She says, “Katie listened because I’d been through a similar ordeal. When I last saw her earlier this year she told me how much she loves her life now. I feel so proud watching her on Strictly. She admits that she’s out of her comfort zone, but she’s doing it. And she refuses to be defined by what happened to her, which is key to recovery.”
A DIFFERENT LIFE
Pam – whose marriage to husband Peter broke down in 2004 – admits it took her ten years to feel normal again.
She says, “I don’t regret the end of my marriage. Once I was on my own, I immediately began to feel happier and wanted to be normal again. I also started to go out on dates, but I realised I wasn’t ready to meet anyone else and, to this day, I’m still happy on my own.
“I’m proof that there’s life after disfigurement – but it’s a different life. Whenever I come across a challenge, I sit back and think of a way around it. It might be something small, for example I struggle with buttons due to burns on my right hand, so I only buy clothes with zips. Then there are bigger things, like coping with people staring at your injuries, but I ignore them.
“It’s not important how the world looks at you, it’s important how you look at the world. I’m lucky to be living my second life. One day I sat down and counted the people who’d helped me survive through medicine or support. It came to 127. For me, helping others with my mentoring is a way to show those people that I’m doing something worthwhile with the life they saved.”
❛SHE HASN’T LET HER INJURIES DEFINE HER❜