My face went up in flames after freak fire dancing accident and now I’m scarred for life
Sophie Lee had been fire breathing for five years when the unimaginable happened
A FIRE dancer suffered horrific burns in a freak accident when an air-con unit blew flames back into her face.
, 23, from Darwen, Lancashire, thought she’d landed her dream job last April after being booked to perform at a huge event in Chicago.
But her act went disastrously wrong. The air-con in the venue was too powerful and blasted a fireball back at her, causing her face and chest to “go up in flames”.
Sophie told Fabulous Digital: “The air-con was too strong so when I blew the fire out it blew back to me. It set me on fire. I just remember being in so much pain, I blacked out for a little bit. It's crazy.
“It happened in front of everyone and I had to get on with it as professionally and quickly as I could. As soon as I got into the ambulance, I was in bits."
Sophie spent a month in intensive care in America by herself, while receiving treatment for the burns.
She said: "That was a scary, scary time. I couldn’t breathe by yourself, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t really see, it was scary. I was pretty out of it but on day two on looked in the mirror and just cried.”
Sophie has been dancing since she was three and had been practising fire breathing for five years.
She said: "There’s always going to be a worry because it’s a risky job, but I’ve always done everything to the book safety wise. It was a shock, a freak accident. “
After her skin started to heal, Sophie was flown back to the UK. She thought she was over the worst of it and kept the true horror of the accident a secret from friends and family.
But then keloid scars started growing on her face and chin. Keloids are benign tumours which grow in areas of trauma and are more common in people with olive, black or Oriental skin like Sophie, who has Chinese heritage.
Sophie, who now lives in Manchester, said: “They developed two months after the accident and they will be with me for life. It's just a case of taming and getting it flattening with steroid injections or laser.
"At first the keloids knocked my confidence because I didn’t know what it was. Up until then the scar was just flat. I thought ‘great, my skin’s healed itself, it’s going to be OK’, and then all of a sudden the skin started raising, it kept growing and growing."
Sophie, who is in legal talks with the organisers of the event, struggled to accept her scars. She admits her former life was very “vanity based” and she’d often share her day-to-day life with her 33,900 Instagram followers.
What are keloid scars?
Some scars grow lumpy and larger than the wound they're healing – this is called keloid scarring.
When the skin is broken – for example, by a cut, bite, scratch, burn, acne or piercing – the body produces more of a protein called collagen.
Collagen gathers around damaged skin and builds up to help the wound seal over.
The resulting scar usually fades over time, becoming smoother and less noticeable.
But some scars don't stop growing, invading healthy skin and becoming bigger than the original wound.
These are known as keloid scars, which affect around 10-15 per cent of all wounds.
Keloid scars are more common on the upper chest, shoulders, head and neck, but they can happen anywhere.
They can appear:
- shiny
- hairless
- raised above the surrounding skin
- hard and rubbery
- red or purple at first
They can last for years and sometimes don't form until months after the initial injury.
Experts don't fully understand why keloid scarring happens.
They are not contagious or cancerous.
Treatment:
There are several treatments available, but none have shown to be more effective than others.
These include:
- steroid injections
- applying silicone gel sheeting for several months
- freezing early keloids with liquid nitrogen
- laser treatment to reduce redness
- surgery
Source: NHS Choices
But now she's on a mission to inspire young girls to love their looks. She said: "Dancing's all about getting dressed up, glitz and glam, I've always loved that. Don't get me wrong, I’m not myself and I know I’ll never be myself again.
"That’s something I have to accept and it has been hard to accept that - but also without this scar I would be dead. That’s the way I look at it, I don’t look at it as a burden to me.”
Sophie says the incident has made her “toughen up and grow a thicker skin”. She said: “I just have to accept myself for me.
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"I think sometimes people stare because they don’t know how to ask. It’s not intentionally rude, I think they’re just curious and don’t know what to say.
"I never mind if people ask about my scars, then I can educate more people about what happened.”
Sophie has continues to dance but has left fire breathing firmly in the past. She said: "I want to speak to young girls, really get the message out there that you should love yourself for everything you are.”
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"It's taken me a long time to accept my body, especially with the industry I was in, I was always scrutinised for how I look.
"But with this accident it’s crazy. Because the one time I feel like I should be most body conscious, I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been."
We previously reported on a First Dates contestant, 24, who was told she should "kill herself" because of her rare skin condition - and hasn't dated for five years.