SPECIAL BOND
Book closes horrific chapter in family’s lives as they hope to inspire others to realise it’s not what happens to you that defines you – but what you choose to do afterwards IN THE days after the acid attack that left her permanently scarred, Katie Piper wanted to die.
Only able to communicate by writing, she told her mother Diane: “Kill me.”
Now her mum has shared diary extracts written in the wake of the attack 10 years ago. In them, she reveals her anguish trying to help her daughter during that horrific period.
Her words are included in a book she’s written with Katie about motherhood. It also celebrates their special mother-and-daughter bond and how they’ve supported each other through tough times.
Katie admits reading her mum’s words for the first time when she proofread From Mother to Daughter was a shock.
She said: “I felt quite sad afterwards and had to go for a walk and reflect on it. I hadn’t realised how difficult life has been for my parents.
“I know how consistent and how caring they’ve been but it really reinforced how full-on it had been for them.
“The upside is it was quite inspiring. You first think, ‘Could I have coped with that if that happened to my child?’
“You realise she was a normal mum with a normal life with a not normal thing and she managed to cope with it and get me through it. It motivates me and inspires me that we can be resilient.”
Her mum nursed her through – and then four years ago roles were reversed when Katie cared for her mum when she was diagnosed with cancer.
Katie said: “It does put it in perspective how short and precious life can be. And we know that two times around now as a family, so we have the upmost respect and awareness of that.”
She hopes the strength her mother found to help her then perhaps also helped her deal with her cancer battle.
Katie said: “It would be great to think it reframed her thoughts in that way that a positive did come out of that suffering.
“She’s endured some of the toughest things that would break some mothers, so I think she certainly wouldn’t let this last leg break her now.”
Life hasn’t been easy for Katie after an ex-boyfriend hired an accomplice to throw acid in her face 10 years ago.
She was left her blind in one eye and had more than 250 operations as surgeons rebuilt her face, chest and hands, which were severely burned.
But she found happiness, married Richard Sutton in November 2015 and is a proud mum of two daughters.
Belle turns four next month and Penelope is just nine weeks. The girls’ names have special meanings.
A lot of Katie’s recovery was spent in rehab in France and so she picked the French word for beautiful for her first daughter even before she was born.
It was also about beauty not just being about aesthetic appearance.
Katie explained: “We knew she would bring beauty into our lives and my parents’ lives as the first grandchild.”
Her second daughter Penelope’s middle name is Diane, after her mum.
She wanted to “carry on the legacy” after initially fearing that she wouldn’t be able to have children.
Katie said finally becoming a mum was “very overwhelming”. She added: “I always appreciate it, which makes the night feeds a little bit easier.”
She and her mum decided to write a book together after appearing on ITV’s Loose Women last year for Mother’s Day.
Katie said: “She read an extract then
The book is about