Don’t dare tell us we’re not bikini beautiful

WITH this heatwave kickstarting summer, many of us will be frantically trying to tone our wobbly bits and slapping on the fake tan, ready to slip into that bikini.

But for some it is an almost impossible prospect.

Sylvia Mac has spent the last 45 years desperately covering herself up, after suffering severe third and fourthdegree burns during a childhood accident.

Now 49, she says the relentless, hurtful comments and stares from strangers left her considering suicide.

“I didn’t realise how bad my mental health was, I thought this was just a physical thing,” she says.

But in July 2015, Sylvia was on holiday with her mum when she sensed a man had started filming her around the pool. Her mum looked so sad that someone could film her daughter’s scars like that, it made Sylvia embrace her body more.

She then decided to help others stop hiding in the shadows and be proud of their bodies. Last year, she set up the Love Disfigure Facebook campaign group, running swimming sessions for people who might otherwise never swim because of how they felt about their bodies.

Since then she has met dozens of women who have learnt to love themselves again and they even agreed to pose in swimwear to show how far they’ve come.

“We’ve all been to some very dark places, but together we’re strong. We’re proud of our scars, our bodies. We’re survivors,” she says.

Here they explain why they decided to show off their scars... My accident happened when I was three, playing hide and seek. There were frequent power cuts in our council flat so Mum used to boil pots of water and put them on the bathroom floor. I thought it’d be a perfect place to hide. When my sister opened the door, it knocked me back into the boiling water. I was rushed to the Mount Vernon burns hospital in Middlesex and put into a coma. Nobody thought I’d survive. Years of surgery and skin grafts followed.

I loved swimming, but I’d purposefully underperform to avoid attention. When I was in the water, I was happy. I hated changing though. I’d make my sister stand on the side with a towel, ready to cover me. Everything changed when that man filmed me. Mum was staring at my scars and looked sad, which made me angry. I started to pose around the pool, showing off my scars. That led to the Facebook campaign, backed by ex-olympic swimmer, Sharron Davies. People going through this should remember they are survivors, strong and beautiful. After a string of abusive relationships, I had severe depression. In July 2013, I tried to take my own life by setting fire to myself. But my sister’s partner saw the fire in my caravan and got me out. In hospital, I was put in an induced coma for three months. I suffered 96% burns and was in there for a year. The first time I saw myself in the mirror, I felt

I’d never be able to go out again.

My daughter, who was seven then, cried, saying I wasn’t her mum, which ripped my heart out.

But I knew I was lucky to have a second chance. I met Sylvia at a Katie Piper event, and jumped at the chance of being in the shoot. Just being with so many other people who understood each other was amazing. I hope this is a new beginning for me. skin-donor sites on my leg and back.

Seeing the new me after months wrapped in bandages was a real shock. Nothing can prepare you for that. Since then, I’ve had touch-ups where the skin grafts have failed, steroid injections, derma roller treatment, and I’ve just be put forward for laser treatment to help with the thickness from scarring.

Thanks to physiotherapy, stretching, massaging and pressure garments, I’ve recently started rock climbing and swimming. But psychologically I’m scarred too. I was diagnosed with PTSD two years after the fire, a diagnosis that

Kizzy Brockall, 31, from Oxford