Yahoo News Katie Piper says she won't be beaten by her 'extensive injuries' on 'Strictly Come Dancing'
Katie Piper has said that she won’t let the injuries she suffered in an acid attack in 2008 hold her back from her Strictly Come Dancing training.
In fact, she’s said that she’s already aiming for Blackpool Tower.
“I’ve got some injuries that might make it a little more difficult,” she told the Radio Times for its special Strictly edition.
“But I don’t think it’d hold me back. I’ve lived with extensive injuries for 10 years.
“I can’t see anything on [my left] side at all, but I’ve been like that for 10 years, so I’ve actually forgotten what it’s like to see from all sides.”
Katie was left blinded in one eye, and with permanent and severe scarring to her face and upper body after an attack which was orchestrated by her ex-boyfriend.
She had to learn to walk again, and has since undergone more than 300 surgeries.
Katie has previously said that respiratory problems caused by the attack, and a band of scar tissue on her head could also limit her movement in training.
It emerged last month that Stefan Sylvestre, who conducted the assault at the behest of Piper’s ex-boyfriend Daniel Lynch, was to be released from prison, after serving nine years of a life sentence.
Lynch was jailed for life, with a minimum of 16 years, for sexually assaulting Piper, and then instructing Sylvestre to throw acid on her.
Katie added: “I think you just adapt and in a way, it actually motivates me more so it actually works in the opposite way. Some of the other contestants are slightly older and they get tired quicker, some have bad backs, I think we could all find reasons to not do things but they don’t have to stop us.
“It would be amazing to think that I could dance at Blackpool – let’s stay optimistic.”
She will appear for the first time underneath the mirrorball, dancing a waltz to Adele’s When We Were Young with professional Gorka Marquez, this coming Saturday night.
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