Chrissie
“When I was three years old, just as I was leaning over to get a photo from above the fireplace, a spark flew out and landed on my nylon night dress, which went up in flames. I tried to put it out and that's why my hands are so badly burned as well as my face, stomach and legs. At the hospital, they said, I was lucky to be alive.”
Chrissie grew up in Leicester and enjoyed a happy childhood with her siblings until, when still an infant, one day changed her life forever. An accident in front of the family’s fireplace gave her life-changing injuries and began her on her path to accepting living with facial differences. She received third-degree burns on her face, arms, body and thighs.
Her scars were accepted by family and friends as she grew up, but once she began junior school, she began to feel isolated due to bullying which got worse as she progressed to secondary school.
“When I was growing up my facial differences just seemed normal to me, I don’t remember any differences. Family and friends were used to my scars. When I started to go to junior school I started to get bullied. Luckily my brothers and sisters were in the same school and would come to my rescue, the teachers and dinner ladies also used to step in but when I got to secondary school it got really bad. I really began to feel like an outsider. I did have a group of friends to whom my scars weren’t a problem, but I got a lot of teasing from other kids. I used to stand in gym class and know I’d be the last one to get picked.”
After leaving school and gaining a degree in psychiatric nursing, Chrissie felt that her real passion lay in performing. With improved confidence, Chrissie began looking at more creative challenges for herself. After beginning a course in drama, she was inspired to shift over to studying creative dance. To deal with facial differences Chrissie began to alter her attire to include more striking outfits. As a performer wearing flamboyant outfits was second nature, but she always felt that people were seeing her facial differences and not her talent.
“I think I started to accept my differences in my early 20s. I used to go to secondhand shops for clothes and I thought one day ‘Well if people are going to stare at me, I'll give them something to look at’. I used to buy the most outrageous outfits and just walk around town.”
After university Chrissie went for a two-week break to Germany… she returned to Leicester fifteen years later with three beautiful children. After falling in love with Germany she began to perform music regularly there and eventually married a German musician. After having three children in Germany, Chrissie realized that German medical practices functioned differently to those in the UK and thought they could perform work on her scars.
“In Germany, I went to a clinic where they specialise in treating burns. I was told, because my scars were so old, there was nothing that they could do. If I had come as a child, maybe they could have done something, and I was gutted. I used to have appointments at the hospital in the UK to discuss skin grafts with the doctors when I was younger, they'd promise ‘By the time you're this age or that age, we'll do something’, and then when I hit 21 they said ‘you're too old for us to do anything now’. That really hurt me because I felt they’d been lying to me all those years”
Chrissie’s marriage didn’t work out and eventually, with three young children in Germany struggling with the language, she felt it was time to return to Leicester. Upon returning to life in the UK, she still believes there are moves that society can make to give people with facial differences equal opportunities.
“Growing up there were no role models with facial differences. When I was doing contemporary dance, I was questioning if I could make a career of it because I didn’t see anybody out there that looked like me. I enjoyed it for myself, but I never really put myself out there with dance. It wasn't until I started getting involved in music that I started really putting myself out there.”
Chrissie has become involved with the Leicester music scene through the Unglamorous project, an initiative to get more women to form bands and have a voice.
“Whilst playing music, I feel at home. I can be myself. The musicians that I hang out with, I tend to find a lot more understanding and a lot more open-minded. My scars are not an issue around creative people but in the everyday world, they become an issue, not for me, but for other people. Some people don't know how to talk to me, they don't know how to approach me. Sometimes when I'm shopping I can hear whispers and I'll just turn around and say ‘I was in a fire’ and they seem shocked and walk off.”
Chrissie plays in three bands including We Are Boilers and Virginia’s Wolves and finds performing live both enjoyable and inspiring. The bands from the Unglamorous project have been featured in many media outlets both in the UK and abroad. The ability to get up and express herself through her music is empowering for her. With the love and support of her friends and family, Chrissie continues to express herself through the arts.
“I haven't been able to do this on my own. I've had good friends and family around me. I would say to people if you've got family and friends around you, that will support you and be there for you, then as long as you're okay with your visible difference, go out there and don't be afraid to show it.”
Although life has presented her with battles, she continues to inspire a younger generation, to show facial differences shouldn’t hold anybody back.
“I want to live my life. I don’t want to hide anymore. I don't think anybody should have to hide. If you've got something that you want to say or do, then just go out there and do it. The more of us with visible differences that go out and show the world that we have a right to be here, will hopefully make people a bit more mindful of how they talk to somebody, or look at somebody, or treat somebody with a visible difference.”
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.