I’ve known Katie Gee for years. Both of us grew up in North-West London. We are the same age — 23 — attended the same parties throughout our teens, went to similar schools and probably kissed the same boys.
In the summer of 2013, we were both in Stonetown, Zanzibar. I was on a family holiday, she was volunteering. But then something terrible happened to Katie, which meant our lives took completely different paths.
On the last night of her trip to Zanzibar, when out walking with another friend, Kirstie, the two girls became victims of a brutal acid attack which left Katie with 35 per cent burns across her body.
I hadn’t seen her since the attack. Through mutual friends, I knew she’d wanted privacy as she recovered. But recently she’s started to become more public about her story. As well as regularly conducting interviews and writing articles, she has now started an Instagram campaign aiming to effect change in the way we view one another.
When we meet, she doesn’t seem self-conscious at all, but very much the beautiful, confident teenager I used to know; the opposite of someone who, she tells me later, for years didn’t want to leave her house.
She tells me about the moment her life changed. “With my friend Kirstie, I was walking to dinner when two men on a motorbike came up to me, on my right hand side, and threw acid at me.”
In a moment of clarity, despite feeling “indescribable pain”, she knew instinctively to put water on her body. “My skin was burning, it stank, I was throwing up because of the smell and the pain. I can’t put it into words. I’ve burned myself on boiling hot water before, I’ve had a broken rib, but this does not compare to anything.
“The first thing I did was run to a nearby bathroom and wash myself with water. I took off all my clothes as they too were covered in acid. Then I started screaming for help.”
After being rushed to a local hospital, both girls — Kirstie was also attacked with the corrosive substance — went to a hotel where they stood under showers for three to four hours before being transported by plane to a hospital on mainland Tanzania.
After landing in Dar es Salaam, Katie was taken on a medical plane back to England, to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London where she remained an inpatient for two months.
Over the past five years, she has had 70 operations, some of which have lasted for more than 12 hours.
Initially, she was reluctant to go public about her trauma.
“After it happened, we were offered so many interviews, documentaries, so much money, but it wasn’t worth it. I just needed to deal with my recovery on my own, with my family, so we said no to absolutely everything.”
But over the past year, she has not only become more open about her experience, but is also now an activist, wishing to help other people and also challenge society’s perception of beauty.
What changed?
“I always wanted to do it; I just didn’t know how to go about it. There is now more emphasis on being yourself, which is so important.”
So, after being connected with Changing Faces, the charity that campaigns to change public opinion, combat discrimination and support those with visual differences, she felt “inspired” to tell her own story.
Katie applied to be a champion for the organisation in December 2017 as she felt that she “wasn’t doing enough.
“I realised for the first time that I could potentially do something good with my story, and maybe help someone else who had been through something similar.
“Initially, I was so conscious of people’s perceptions of me. I don’t think that’s ever fully going to go away but you have to get to a point where you just really feel it’s not important. I wasted so much energy caring about what other people thought of me. You have to learn it’s your life, not someone else’s.”
Her work with Changing Faces encouraged her to start vlogging. On her YouTube channel, which has received thousands of views, she documents different stages of her recovery, candidly discusses hardships she has overcome throughout the years and invites friends to partake in “a very honest and raw Q & A” where they are encouraged to truthfully divulge what it was like seeing her scars for the first time. One friend reveals that she sat outside the hospital room and cried.
Another post, which Katie describes as an “advice-y type video” addresses how she responds to “strangers staring at her in public.” She intersperses these discussions with unfiltered images of how she looked following the attack.
But, despite becoming an inspiration for others by challenging beauty norms and advocating a need to embrace difference, after writing an article for the Daily Mail recently, the paper ran it under the headline, Girl Horribly Disfigured.
Sadly, she admits that, at first, “I didn’t even think anything of it because I was so used to this kind of reporting about my appearance.
“But, on reflection, I thought it was absolutely horrific; I just couldn’t believe they’d got away with it.”
It was this experience that prompted Katie to launch the hashtag #SettingTheStandard on Instagram. Taking to the social media site, she screenshotted the article’s title and wrote:
“Confused. I didn’t consider myself horribly disfigured?
“As a community, we must update our perspective by celebrating ALL beauty in the media: MORE inclusion, MORE diversity, LESS ideals, LESS norms.”
She asked followers to “include a picture you have been self-critical of… & thought twice about posting (from a scar to a spot, to a bad angle) because of media pressure.”
Though she anticipated that the hashtag would circulate only among friends, it quickly attracted support, with more than 23,900 posts on Instagram from people capturing aspects of their appearance that they disliked.
Despite gathering such support, she modestly disagrees when I say that the hashtag went impressively “viral”. For her, the most important thing is to continue to promote the message behind #SettingTheStandard.
“We need to better promote different beauty ideals. I am very much aware of how the media perceives anyone that looks different, with scars, or those that aren’t skinny enough.
“I want to continue to send out the message that one doesn’t have to live up to the standards that we are constantly shown on Instagram. I want to get across that, in real life, no one looks like they do on Instagram.”
She attributes the campaign’s success to the closeness of the North-West London Jewish community.
“It did so well in that area because everyone supports the community. I think something special about the Jewish community is that it’s a tight knit group. When I came back to London from Africa, I didn’t realise how supportive it is but you really are [supported] by family, friends, friends of friends, etc.”
But despite experiencing such warmth, Katie’s journey has been made harder by the fact that, at times, she has felt completely isolated from friends and family.
It’s also been incredibly difficult for Katie’s family, which she describes as “extremely close.
“I have two younger brothers, so it was a lot for them to deal with. It’s been especially hard on my mum, as we’ve always been very close. She suffered a lot of guilt that she shouldn’t have sent me there in the first place.”
She says her mother often gets upset when Katie makes public appearances, telling her daughter: “You shouldn’t have to be in this position."
But Katie says she loves the “buzz” she gets from these appearances, and feels they help her to move on.
“I have to remember that it’s happened, so my choice is to I live with it happening and not do anything, or I can do something about it. Rather than hiding away, I want to share my story and help others. Life is so short. You have to do things like this.”
I am overwhelmed by her resilience and sense of empowerment. After completing a degree in Sociology at Nottingham University, she has been accepted on to a Master’s programme that leads to a job in commercial property.
As it’s near Yomtov, I ask how she feels about the year ahead. She says she’s never been one to follow mantras like “new year, new me”.
Instead, “it’s important that every day you’re a good person, every day you’re kind. [The New Year] is a very refreshing time in life as it allows you to reflect but I don’t think we all need to change.”
A source of inspiration is the model and TV presenter Katie Piper, who was also victim of an acid attack in 2008, and who is about to take part in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Katie says that Piper “has been amazing. She’s visited me in hospital and even come to my house for lunches.
“On some level, I feel like she’s the only person who truly gets me. Her strength is something I want to match.” As our interview ends, I feel much the same about the Katie in front of me.
The two men who carried out the attack were never caught. Now, Katie says, “for my own sanity, it’s easier to move on.”
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