Starting the conversation – Skin deep

Transcript

[A number of young people talk in turn]

Looking ahead. It's, it's a pretty scary road because you are gonna be every year missing out on school, missing out on playing sports, missing out on doing just general kids stuff.

I had to do occupational therapy, especially on my hands.

I couldn't even roll off a bed to begin with and that wasn't great.

When I first got burnt and I had to go back to school. Like I thought, oh yes, I'm gonna go back to all my friends. But once I went back, everyone was just looking at me.

You feel very alone, and it's not good to feel that way.

It's okay to be scared, like it's honestly okay.

The hardest part was actually the psychological stuff, like kind of registering what had happened.

Just don't be afraid to ask questions. There's no, such as a silly question.

It's really good to celebrate the little victories.

People were going to judge you, but you judge yourself the most.

They didn't make fun of me or anything. They were just, they just wanted to see if I was okay.

It was a few times, remember when I was probably 12, 13 , going through that kind of identity crisis, what am I gonna look like? That kind of thing. Where I had a couple of splints on.

Generally little children ask you.

There were definitely lots of times, especially in the first couple of years, where I felt really self-conscious in public.

My dad just came and grabbed me and said, what are you worried about? They're looking at you because you know, you're different.

They're probably never seen someone who's been burned.

It makes you feel so much better to know there's other people out there that have scars and have been through the same sort of stuff as you.

There are a couple of times when I thought, I'm not gonna be able to do this or I'm not gonna be able to do that.

It didn't hold me back playing football. It didn't hold me back at school, hasn't held me back through anything else. I just do it.

Once they've healed, you can just, it's just skin. You can do anything, anyone else can do.

Skin deep at the end of the day. Like it's, it's skin deep, it's not a big deal. People don't even really realise sometimes cause I'm just so out there and just doing my own thing. They don't even really sometimes pick up that I am burnt.

Even though this sounds silly and I would've hated myself for saying this. It will get better. Like you're annoyed at yourself and anyone who says that to you, you're not gonna believe them.

If you do the exercises and you, and you do the stuff properly, you'll see fantastic results.

And also moisturiser and sunscreen are your friend.

You have those times where you're like, I can't do it. I can't do it.

Like, you're gonna need all the support you can get.

You know, you don't think that you'd ever go back to this, this normal state, but it, it really does. Like, people, if anything, look at you in a different, more respectable light, like you've just, you know, you're a, you're a survivor, you're, you're a warrior, you're a fighter.