After suffering severe bums to her back and other pans of her body at the age of three, Sylvia, 49, had spent her life covering up her scars. Her confidence was destroyed by years of1comments. At her lowest she had considered2her own life.
"I didn't really know what3was. I didn't realize my mental health was being affected﹣I4thought this was a5thing."
The accident that left her6happened during a7game of hide and seek with her sister. Afterward, a life of8herself up and hiding from attention followed, until a turning point in July last year.
Sylvia was on holiday with her mother when she9a man's camera phone following her around the hotel pool. She and her mother left for the beach, but she was struck by the10the encounter had on her mother.
"I could see her11at my scars. She just looked so sad," Sylvia recalled.
So she started to12, calling out to her mum to make her smile.
"I had been in such a bad place before. I was so13. I was in such a horrible place for so many years. I looked back and felt like I'd destroyed my family s lives and I thought, now is the time for me to stop."
Sylvia felt it was time not just to make a14for herself, but to help others with disfigurements（外形的损毁）and to raise awareness.
She15a Facebook group, Love Disfigure, and now runs swimming sessions at High bury pool in Islinton, north London, with the aim of helping increase the16of people with disfigurements or17and health conditions.
For Sylvia, last year has been18. Having19her body, and had depression, anxiety and post﹣traumatic stress disorder（创伤后应激障碍）she now hopes her story will20others.
