‘Unbearable loneliness’ of teenager hit with acid on volunteer trip to Zanzibar

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A woman who was attacked with acid in Zanzibar has described the anxiety and loneliness that she felt during her recovery.

Katie Gee, who along with friend Kirstie Trup, was targeted by two men on a moped in August 2013, said it was three years before she “faced the world” following the assault.

Miss Gee told The Sunday Times she had recurring nightmares of being chased by attackers and waking up without her scars, and only “felt normal again” at a friend’s 21st birthday party in July.

image: https://content.assets.pressassociation.io/2017/05/07134921/0beb845b2acc4fdc857ae09edc4dc1ca-640x857.jpg

Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup were attacked with acid on Zanzibar (Family handout/PA)

“That night I finally felt free to talk about my life outside the context of the acid attack. I was reliving some of the old times I had shared with my friends during our teen years,” she told the paper.

“It was a far cry from the feelings of anxiety and loneliness I’d grown use to; a loneliness that became almost unbearable and began to kick in four months after I was attacked.”

The pair, from North London, were 18 years old when they were attacked in Stone Town, the main city on Zanzibar, where they were volunteering. The men behind the attack on August 7 have never been found.

Miss Gee was moved to speak to the paper following a recent spate of attacks in the UK and told the paper “something needs to be done about getting access to acid so easily”

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news