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New help for burns victims
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03dec05
STACY Glover has been a burns survivor for 40 years, but she only recently discovered the support she has needed for a lifetime of physical and emotional scarring.
The Frenchs Forest resident has turned to the Peter Hughes Burn Foundation, a national support group for burn survivors and their families.
The foundation, which will also fund research, education and awareness, was launched on Wednesday by Bali bomb survivor Peter Hughes.
In 1965, aged two, Mrs Glover pulled a hot water humidifier over her head and badly burned her back, arms and part of her face.
"In those days you didn't have support groups or therapy, you just had to suck it up," she said.
"Family support just isn't enough. If you say to someone my skin hurts, they don't know what you are talking about.
"I had surgery at 18, 30, and now I'm in my 40s I have to do it again," she said.
"It (the skin grafts) just won't stretch any more.
"I'm done with reality. I want my fairy godmother, but that ain't going to happen."
The mother to five-year-old Holly said she was not in pain, just "really uncomfortable".
"Most days I just forget about it," she said.
"Obviously summer is hard. I can't wear a sun dress, a halter, anything backless.
"We have a pool in our yard, if new people come over I have to shield it (the burns) as much as I can."
Mrs Glover will volunteer for the foundation and counsel burn survivors aged between 18 and 25 years.
"I can let them know you do grow up and have a family," she said.
"Just because you got burned doesn't mean you're not going to have a good life.
"You initially get out of hospital and you are happy to be alive. But even if you have clothes on and no one knows you are burned, you still have issues."
"There is a whole other side of it, the hidden scars. It's an interesting journey and every time you think it ends it really hasn't ended." |
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