Women of the Year Awards 2010 honours Katie Piper with the Woman of Courage Award - The 2010 Women of the Year Awards has celebrated the extraordinary bravery of the young woman Katie Piper, who survived a horrific acid attack in 2008 and who has gone on to set up the Katie Piper Foundation, by awarding her with the 2010 Woman of Courage Award.
Women of the Year Awards 2010 honours Katie Piper with the Woman of Courage Award
By Revolver PR
Oct 15, 2010 - 12:08:35 PM
The 2010 Women of the Year Awards has celebrated the
extraordinary bravery of the young woman Katie Piper, who survived a
horrific acid attack in 2008 and who has gone on to set up the Katie
Piper Foundation, by awarding her with the 2010 Woman of Courage Award.
In
May 2009, Katie Piper was introduced to the public after making the
decision to give up her anonymity and share her horrific story in a
remarkable film for Channel 4, Katie: My Beautiful Face. From CCTV
footage of the horrific 2008 attack to the day she first stepped out of
her parents’ house alone, Katie took the audience through the daily
ordeal of rebuilding her life, the pioneering treatments that helped
save her and the effects on both her and her family.
Katie
Piper is a beautiful young woman rebuilding her life after surviving a
brutal attack where sulphuric acid was thrown in her face, in March
2008. Before the attack, Katie was a model and budding TV presenter with
a hectic social life and glowing future in the public eye. More than
two years on with over 40 operations and countless treatments and
therapies, Katie faces personal challenges daily but she is back in
control, living her life.
Danny
Lynch asked Katie on a date via Facebook but just two weeks into the
relationship things went disastrously wrong. He became aggressive after a
night out and she endured eight hours of rape and abuse. With death
threats from Lynch, she was too scared to report him to the police and
instead locked herself in her flat for three days.
Lynch
bombarded her with calls and messages and in a desperate attempt to get
him out of her life she believed his pleas that if she read an email
from him he would leave her alone forever. As she left her flat to head
to an internet café, a man approached holding a cup. Thinking he was a
beggar, Katie reached into her bag for money. In a split second 19 year
old Stefan Sylvestre threw a cup of sulphuric acid in her face.
The
acid destroyed all the skin on Katie’s face, neck and hands, and left
her blind in one eye. It also burnt her nose and throat so severely that
she needed to be fed through a tube in her stomach and now regularly
has operations to dilate her oesophagus as the scar tissue reforms and
restricts her ability to eat and drink.
Surgeons,
led by Mr Mohammed Ali Jawad FRCS, performed pioneering surgery on
Katie. He chose to control the damage by removing they dead layers of
skin from Katie’s face and rebuilding the foundations using a dermal
substitute called Matriderm along with huge skin grafts from her back
and buttocks. It’s the first of its kind in the world to be done as a
single stage operation.
Katie
spent seven weeks in the burns unit at the Chelsea and Westminster
Hospital. She was placed in an induced coma and spent ten days in
intensive care. She wore a special plastic pressure mask for 23 hours a
day for two years, in an effort to flatten her scars.
The attack ruined Katie from the inside out. Like many, she believed her life was over now that she was a burns victim.
However,
since then her achievements have only climbed, from talking on
television and radio around the world to seting up the Katie Piper
Foundation. The response to Katie’s story has been overwhelming and by
telling it she hopes to increase awareness and support burn victims by
sharing information about the kind of rehab she had and her experiences
in getting to where she is today.
As
well as her NHS care in Britain, Katie was sent to a specialist
rehabilitation centre in France, Centre Ster in Lamalou, which had a
huge impact on her recovery, both mentally and physically. At home her
days were filled with specialist scar management routines. She relied on
her mum and dad for help but thanks to the outstanding treatment she
had and her incredible determination, Katie has made amazing progress
and no longer feels that her burns define her.
The
two men were linked and both were sentenced in April 2009. Lynch was
given two life sentences and will serve at least sixteen years in jail.
Stefan Sylvestre received a 12-year sentence, with a minimum of six
years behind bars.
ENDS
The 2010 Businesswoman of the Year finalists Year
on year, the prestigious title attracts an outstanding field of
candidates and 2010 is no exception. The seven finalists drawn from
every walk of life has each made a significant contribution to the
financial success and performance of their organisation:
-
Louise Bennett, Chief Executive of
Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce.
-
Julie Moore, Chief Executive of University Hospitals
Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
-
Suzie Norton, Chief Executive of Birmingham based
Screen West Midlands.
-
Alison Wetton, Founder and Chief Executive of All About Weight, headquartered in
Crewe.
-
Kavita Jnagal and Rani Upelle, co-founders of Simply Recruitment, based in
Birmingham.
-
Fiona Toye, Chief Executive of Toye, Kenning and Spencer, headquartered in
Birmingham.
The
judges were Ben Gulliford, Regional Centre Head for Barclays Wealth ,
Silla Maizey, Management Board Director, British Airways, Gavin Tyzack,
Director of Sales Southern Division, Hilton Hotels UK, Geoff Cousins,
Managing Director of Jaguar UK, Tracy Westall, UK Public Sector Sales
Director in the UK, SCC
About the event
Now in its 28th
year of fundraising success, the Women of the Year Luncheon and Awards
is the best kept secret outside of London and a sell out year on year,
the event is attended by hundreds of high profile and talented female
guests. The 2010 event sponsors were Barclays Wealth, British Airways,
Harvey Nichols, Hilton Birmingham Metropole, Jaguar, SCC and The
Challenge Factor.
The
event raises vital funds for the national charity, Vitalise, which
provides essential respite breaks and other services for disabled
people, visually impaired people, and carers. Proceeds from the Awards
are donated directly to Vitalise. Over the years, the awards have raised
over £500,000 for thecharity.
Vitalise
is a national charity providing essential services for disabled people,
visually impaired people and carers. Vitalise provides short breaks for
disabled people and carers, with 24-hour nursing care on-call and
personal support, at three accessible UK centres. A fourth Centre in
Cornwall provides accessible activity and adventure breaks for children
and adults with disabilities. All of Vitalise’s Centres offer a wide
range of activities and excursions. Vitalise also organises group
holidays for blind and visually impaired people, accompanied by sighted
guides.
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