Catrin
“I think coming to terms with a change of appearance and a big ordeal and accident like I went through is easier when you can just do it in your own time. Despite all the media attention, luckily, I came through it positively, but that's not necessarily the case for everyone.”
At the age of 19, Catrin Pugh boarded a coach to bring her back to the UK after an enjoyable ski season in the French Alps. Ready to take on her next adventure but a terrible accident resulted in her receiving third-degree burns on 96 per cent of her body. After three months in a coma, she awoke to find her life had changed hugely. At first, Catrin had to take time to come to terms with her new differences.
With so much media attention on her, seeing images of her injuries compared to photos from before the accident was difficult for her.
“I started seeing photos I would share on social media printed in articles, and then I’d have to look at it. I’d need to look at pictures of me before and after the accident next to each other. It was already such a big thing to come to terms with, but seeing it in print or online made it harder.”
Despite the life-changing injuries, she has remained positive throughout her experience and now feels she has a purpose that will keep on encouraging her to spread her message.
“The accident I went through, the injuries I got, and the life-shattering experience I had, I always say that it changed me for the better. Lots of people don't really understand that, or they say ‘Really?’, because now I'm covered in scars, and my life is harder. I have disabilities I contend with every day, but before I had my accident, I truly didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. As soon as I woke up from my coma, and realised that I had this injury, I knew that my whole world was going to be facing injustices because I looked different.”
With a busy schedule fighting for the equality of people with facial differences, Catrin can still sometimes be asked uncomfortable questions that raise past trauma. Through her role as a public speaker, however, she has managed to find ways to express her answers that help move the conversation forward and push society to accept change.
“I feel like people have made me feel the need to explain myself and my injuries. When you wear a mark or a scar on your skin, and it's visible for people to see, it's also hard for people not to be intrigued by it, but it doesn't make it okay to ask any questions you like. It isn’t okay that this is the norm, but for now, it is the norm. I've come up with ways of dealing with answering questions, and I have been fortunate enough to come through this quite strongly and positively. If I'd been less confident and more reserved, and this had happened with people asking me questions every day, I don't know how I'd cope. Answering questions is reliving a trauma that was horrendous, I can close my eyes, I can see it.”
Catrin still feels there is plenty of work to be done, especially in the media, for society to become more accepting of facial and bodily differences.
“10 years ago when I acquired my scarring there was nobody in the media that I could look to, to see that looking like this was okay. People would bring me magazines in the hospital and I remember flicking through them, and literally, everything was about having perfect skin, looking perfect, being perfect. I would lay there like, ‘Okay, well, I can't do that’. I couldn’t really see where I could fit in. No one with facial differences was on TV. I just couldn't find anyone to look to for a while, and I felt really on my own. The statistics show that millions of people identify as having a visible difference or a disability, but we're just not represented.”
Catrin regularly models for photoshoots to showcase her differences, and her work continues to challenge society to be progressive.
“I used to wear long-sleeved clothes and completely cover up because I didn't want to be asked questions and I didn't feel ready to show the world my scarring. I think feeling like you need to hide that difference is so normal, and it's not fair, because it’s the way that society has made us feel about how we look.”
Despite much progress, there is still a great deal of work to do to normalise facial differences in the media and society as a whole. She is working hard to spread this message and continue to inspire those with facial differences across the UK and worldwide.
“If you have a facial difference you're usually seen in the media or television and films as the bad guy. I grew up thinking if you had a scar on your face that I should run away or be nervous, and then I acquired my scar at 19. So I've seen it from both sides. I and lots of other people who have visible differences live very regular lives. We have families, and we have regular jobs, and that is never represented in the media. That's why we need that positivity and representation in those roles.”
“I think that there has been a shift in attitudes towards lots of minorities and people with differences, over the past five years, towards society becoming more accepting. My concern is that unless we keep pushing, there's not going to be an actual societal change. If we look at any kind of shift in people's perceptions, and attitudes, towards groups of people, in the past, it takes not just five years or 10 years, but it takes decades to actually properly make a change. The younger people who are more accepting, as they grow, they have kids, and then that's where you start having a fully accepting society.”
Catrin works tirelessly both with her physiotherapy work and through public speaking and modelling to help others with facial differences to love themselves. She still has bad days sometimes, however, as everybody does.
“I think it's okay sometimes to just say to yourself ‘I'm having a bad day and I actually need to take that day, I actually can't be strong today’. It's only actually over the past few years that I've started doing that, and I've realised that it’s okay to have those days. I luckily don't have too many of them, so it doesn't completely debilitate me by making me stay in for weeks at a time. Sometimes I just say ‘I can't be strong today, I need to take a minute’.”
FIND OUT MORE
Face Equality International
Face Equality International is an alliance of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), charities and support groups which are working at national, regional or international levels to promote the campaign for ‘face equality’.
To learn more about Face Equality International, click here.
CHANGING FACES
Changing Faces provide life-changing mental health, wellbeing and skin camouflage services. They work to transform understanding and acceptance of visible difference, and campaign to reduce prejudice and discrimination.
To learn more about Face Equality International, click here.
Source: https://www.changingfaces.org.uk
The Katie Piper Foundation
The Katie Piper Foundation help adult survivors of burns, people with severe scars from a traumatic incident such as a road traffic accident, or someone with scarring from Necrotising fasciitis their rehabilitation. They can also help family members or carers. The Katie Piper Foundation offer services that work alongside existing support networks like the NHS.
To learn more about Face Equality International, click here.