 On July 7 I caught the tube to work. I was at Edgware Road when I heard a loud explosion that cut off the power and sent a wobble in my carriage. I was evacuated onto the street and forced to find an alternate route. That route was on the Number 30 bus.
As the bus bomb went off, my vision went green with bright flashing lights; everything sounded like I was deep underwater. Unbeknown to me at the time, I had a broken neck, blast wounds to my legs, a large cut on the top of my head and my arm was burning.
In A&E later that day, the 'plastics' team were called in when a piece of debris could not be removed from my leg. This is how my relationship with Mr Simon Withey began. For the next 2 weeks he and his team would visit me every day and talk to me compassionately about my burns and my leg wounds, about tissue loss, infection, pain and potential skin grafts. They performed three operations on my legs in the first 6 days including the removal of what turned out to be the toggle switch used in the bomb.
Each day when I look at my face and my legs and compare them to what they were, I feel better knowing that the Healing Foundation is dedicated to research into new surgical methods and trying to better understand the effects scars have on people. I owe a great deal to my plastic surgeon and his team but I'm also keen to be part of seeing the Healing Foundation's vision turn into a reality. |
