Burns survivor Catrin Pugh becomes physio for Katie Piper charity

A woman who was given a one in 1,000 chance of survival following a coach crash has become a physiotherapist to help other burns survivors.

Catrin Pugh, from Wrexham, was left with 96% burns after the accident in the French Alps in 2013.

She now works for the Katie Piper Foundation charity, helping burns survivors and those with visible scars.

Catrin said: "I absolutely love my job. It's where I wanted to be and where I thought I'd be in years to come."

Catrin graduated from university last year and began her new post as in-house physiotherapist for the charity in October.

During the coronavirus restrictions much of her work involved online consultations but now she is able to treat people in person.

She generally has a caseload of 16 patients.

Catrin works at the charity's rehabilitation centre on Merseyside, where survivors can spend several days accessing a range of therapies including emotional as well as physical support.

Catrin spent eight months in hospital and had over 200 operations.

She hopes her experience can reassure others who are beginning their recoveries.

She said: "My main goal is to show people that you can have a life after such trauma and such traumatic injury and life can be fulfilling and positive, and whatever you want it to be.

"In this role I can show people that they can do that simply by doing the job and by giving people the tools and skills to get there."

She added that recovery was not a straightforward process.

"It's ups and downs every day when you live with scarring to get to a point of acceptance and understanding how your life could be and look," she explained.

"I'd like to think people would look at me and see that the future looks bright, but I don't think it's as simple as that."

Vanessa, whose surname was not given by the Katie Piper Foundation, is a burns survivor. Catrin has been treating her scarring with a vacuum massage machine.

Vanessa said: "From the beginning, she's been marvellous.

"She's been doing a lot of burns physio via Teams meetings but it's great to get her hands on - she's fabulous."

Catrin has previously volunteered with the Katie Piper Foundation and been an ambassador for Changing Faces, which also supports people who have visible differences.

As well as modelling for cosmetics company Avon, Catrin was also recently the subject of the BBC One series Extraordinary Portraits, in which artist Kelvin Okafor unveiled a hyper-realistic pencil portrait of her.

She said: "It was a surreal experience. Kelvin was so adamant that he wanted to celebrate every single difference, all of his work is about finding all the bits you think are imperfections and celebrating them.

"It was amazing."