And it is that headline specifically that encouraged her to endeavor to change the traditional perception of beauty in the media. This was the choice of words used in one news headline describing Katie's looks following the attack. "Is my hair greasy?" she asks when the camera starts rolling for the filmed portion of our interview.īut what she is not is "horribly disfigured." She is confident, relaxed and has the same benign worries as any other 23-year-old. Having completed her degree, she is about to start a new graduate job in commercial property. Holly Snelling/Newsweekįive years later, however, she is in a very different place. Katie Gee suffered an acid attack in 2013. While all of her friends went off to college she was left facing a long road to recovery with burn scars on her face and body that served as a constant reminder of that day. In the aftermath of the attack she spent two months in the hospital, had over 60 operations, went to therapy and even spent time at a scar rehab center in France. She was left with no choice but to stand under the swimming pool showers for five hours. The battery acid that had mostly soaked Katie had disintegrated the clothes she was wearing, the local hospital ran out of saline, and the hotel they fled to so they could use clean water was reluctant to let them use a room. I never thought I'd be that person but the first thing I did after he threw the acid was try and read the number plate," she says. I need to get help now, completely on adrenaline. I had such a rational thought process: This is what's happened. But on the way back home two strangers on a scooter slowed down, hurled acid over them in an unprovoked attack, and drove off. On their last weekend the two young girls went out for dinner to celebrate a month of volunteering. She traveled with a friend to Zanzibar, a Tanzanian island off the East African coast to teach kindergarten-age children English and math. The then-18-year old from London was expected to start college in the fall of 2013 and wanted to do something different during her last long summer vacation. You're literally trying to focus on the next five seconds and getting through it," she says. "I know its a lot of info, but I was being sick at this point. Katie Gee looks almost apologetic as she shares the dramatic details of the attack that changed her life forever five years ago. "I was just washing myself under these showers, screaming for help."
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