I was relying on alcohol to get me through the days
moderately and Katie fondly remembers supping her favourite champagne at their wedding in November 2015. But it’s no longer a crutch.
Her recovery from the intense burns, however, still affects her life every day. It even affected their dream wedding day, with Katie only able to eat soup because she could not stomach solids.
“At least I made it to my wedding – a few months earlier, I hadn’t been sure I’d be able to,” she says. “I was thinking, ‘I’m getting married and I can’t even eat a piece of my cake!’ It was sad but not the end of the world. And it was a wonderful wedding. I wore a gorgeous dress, I could walk and talk, and have a drink and a bowl of soup. “It’s about putting things in perspective and recognising what you can and can’t control. And my wedding was amazing.” Katie had to miss her sister’s wedding due to health problems last year and, devastatingly, Belle’s first birthday in March. She says: “I had to go to hospital for a procedure to help me swallow but I was assured I’d be home well before. Except I wasn’t. “There were complications and I ended up with a tear in my oesophagus leading to surgical emphysema. There was no way I could come home, so all our plans were shelved. “I don’t think Belle minded. But I wanted to share my daughter’s first birthday with her. But I had to let it go.” Katie carries this positive attitude with her every time she has a setback. “There is never an end and no one ever gets to a certain point in their life and thinks, ‘Well, that’s it,’” she says. “Whether it’s career or personal. We’re always ongoing and sometimes we’re going backwards as well. I don’t really believe that barriers exist, unless we create them and feed them.”
She is now sharing all she has learned in her new book, Katie Piper Confidence: The Secret.
She says: “Before, I’d get up hungover and do my make-up in the taxi, whereas now I get up, go to the gym, clear my mind. It’s about making better choices.”
Katie’s upsetting but inspirational tale is well known. Daniel Lynch, 39, dated her for two weeks before turning violent. He hired hitman Stefan Sylvestre, 27, to throw sulphuric acid in her face on a London street. Lynch got two life sentences and will serve a minimum of 16 years. Sylvestre got life with a minimum of 12 years and was turned down for parole last December.
Katie, who was a rising model and presenter, spent two months having ops to repair her features and internal injuries. The acid burned the inside of her nose, mouth and throat and partially blinded her in one eye.
She has endured more than 300 procedures and still has tubes in her nostrils as she heals after her latest operation. But Katie uses her recovery as a way to bond with her family. She says: “We were on the train the other day and Belle was facing me and said: ‘What happened to you?’
“Everyone was listening so I just said I’d tell her another time. She always asks why she doesn’t have tubes, she wants tubes like mummy!”
Katie is looking forward to a busy 2017. She says: “Burn injuries are for life and I accept it. But some people don’t survive acid attacks, so you have to celebrate the victories.”