Katie Piper, Acid Burn Victim, Discusses How She Became a Survivor

By Alicia on

Piper's face was reconstructed with a revolutionary new treatment.
Katie Piper has a terrifying story to tell, but she's using the horror to do great things.

Piper was 24 years old when a complete stranger threw a cup of sulfuric acid in her face outside a North London Internet cafe in March 2008, causing third-degree burns to her face and chest and blinding her in one eye. Prior to the attack, Piper had made a career modeling and TV presenting, and had planned a career in the media.

It was later discovered that Piper's then-boyfriend Daniel Lynch had orchestrated the attack. Lynch, who Piper met on the social networking site Facebook, had previously been jailed for throwing boiling water in a man's face - a fact Piper wasn't made aware of until after she was burned. Lynch's attack on Piper came two days after he had terrorized and raped her at a Bayswater hotel (Piper said she'd been too scared to notify the police at the time). Lynch was convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 16 years in prison, while Stefan Sylvestre, the man who threw the acid, was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years.

Following extensive skin graft procedures by Dr. Mohammad Ali Jawad, Piper chose to waive her anonymity in order to raise awareness for burn victims. She detailed the horrors of her attack in a Channel 4 documentary, Katie: My Beautiful Face, in 2009. She has since started the Katie Piper Foundation, which offers support to other burn victims. She's also trying to open a burn repair rehab unit in London.