At Home with Dr Christian Jessen - 76

| FACE YOUR FEARS|

people who look like me working at
major networks. I approach life with
a positive outlook and I don't allow
employers to see me as not able to do
things. I've been turned down for jobs
but so has everyone. It may have been
down to my appearance, it may not.
For now I'm enjoying what I do, but I
want to experience lots of other things.'

'My burn marks
are a massive part
of my identity'

A positive approach

KELLIE O'FARRELL, 26, from London, is a TV researcher

'When I was two years old, I was
badly burned in a ﬁre. Even though
my parents were always careful, kids
get into unpredictable situations. I
was playing in the family car. In those
days, car cigarette lighters were hot
as soon as you pulled them out. I let
the lighter fall on the car seat and it
immediately set the car alight. The
burning roof material fell onto me.
'I'd locked the doors so my mother
couldn't get in, so she broke a window.
I've no recollection of the accident,
which is good because I don't live
with the trauma - but those two
minutes changed my life for ever.'

Reconstructive surgery

fabulous! It's not the end of
life. Every day I live, I'll always be
burned. There's no cure. People
will always look at me and see my
marks. But it's a massive part of
my identity and it has made me
stronger and more conﬁdent.
'Sometimes is was hard going to
school. Children don't understand
and of course they'll say things that
aren't nice. But I don't have bad

'BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE
- DISFIGUREMENT DOESN'T
MAKE YOU LESS OF A PERSON'

'I was in hospital for four months, but
I've had over 20 years of plastic and
reconstructive surgery. It was my
face and hands that were
burned, and I had a lot
of operations on my
Feel your best
hand joints and
CHANGING FACES
tendons to make my
ﬁngers longer. There
RUNS AROUND 120
was also ﬂattening
SKIN CAMOUFLAGE
of the skin on my
face to make it look
CLINICS AROUND
as normal as possible.
THE COUNTRY
I had annual surgery
EACH MONTH
for the ﬁrst 10 years,
and occasional surgery
from then on. After 20 years,
I said, "No more."
'My hands look badly burned but
I have good ﬁne motor skills - I can
eat, drive, even thread a needle.
They'll never be the same though:
normally you have 100 layers of skin
and I only have 10, so the skin is
very frail, and bleeds easily.
'I've had physiotherapy and a lot
of hard work has been put in to limit
my disability. All my play as a child
was centred on improving my hand
mobility. It paid off because I can
live completely independently. I've
learned that I can be burned and
076 | MARCH 2015

feelings towards them - those kids
have grown up to be good people.
What I ﬁnd harder is the negative
attitude people unconsciously put
forward that could result in you not
getting promotion. Or someone not
sitting by you on a bus, or discussing
you in a café - and the staring and
pointing. It is improving, though.
I see big changes in attitude because
people are more informed and
employers want to be more equal.'

Follow your dream

'I joined the charity Changing Faces
(www.changingfaces.org.uk) when I
was 17. They were recruiting to give
a voice to young people with burns.
It enabled me to communicate what
it's like to be burned, and get across
that I want to be treated as an equal,
because I am an equal.
'My appearance hasn't held me
back - in fact, it's made me more
outgoing. Being able to walk into a
crowded room with my head high
while everyone is staring means I've
had to learn to be very conﬁdent.
'After graduating, I did a Masters
in television journalism, and for the
last two years, I've been working as
a TV researcher. There aren't many

'I'm single but I don't put that all
down to my disﬁgurement. It's more
challenging because the ﬁrst thing
you're attracted to is the face, but
that's short-lived. I know people with
facial disﬁgurements who are happily
married to wonderful people. I have
great friends and I can't see anything
stopping me ﬁnding a partner.
'My advice to someone in a similar
situation is to seek help and support,
and talk to other people who live with
disﬁgurements. Be who you want to
be and nothing will hold you back.
I've met many wonderful, conﬁdent,
beautiful people through Changing
Faces - people I look up to because
they're so positive. Disﬁgurement
doesn't make you less of a person.'

HELP FOR YOU

Treatments for scars include:
CORTICOSTEROID INJECTIONS:
Used for hypertrophic or keloid
(raised) scars. Multiple injections
are done to reduce swelling and
ﬂatten the scar. It can't remove scars
but can improve their appearance.
SILICONE GELS/SHEETS: Used
on healing skin (not open wounds)
to reduce redness and minimise
hypertrophic or keloid scarring.
SURGERY: Can sometimes be
used to change the positioning,
width or shape of scars, or release
a tight scar to improve movement.
LASER/LIGHT PULSE THERAPY:
Can reduce the redness in a scar by
targeting blood vessels in excess scar
tissue. Laser re-surfacing can also be
used to make the scar ﬂatter by
removing the top layers of skin and
stimulating collagen production.
RADIOTHERAPY: Low-dose,
superﬁcial radiotherapy may reduce
the recurrence of hypertrophic and
keloid scars after surgery. Effective
in 70% of cases but, because of the
possible side effects, it's reserved
for the most serious cases.
http://www.changingfaces.org.uk
At Home with Dr Christian Jessen

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