My mum always sort of pushed me to like, at first, sort of they’re like “Oh, go and do this. You’ll have great fun” sort of thing. I mean, like at eight, the thought of staying overnight with people you don’t know is a bit like “Oh my gosh!” But she sort of pushed me and went “Oh, it’s just one night, go and do it, see if you like it.” I did and I absolutely loved it and then went to camp for years. Absolutely loved camp.

But I used to look forward to getting the letters because they used to have my name on it – not my parents or anything – it was for me. And, as a kid, getting a letter through the door, you know, like “Oh my gosh, I’ve got post”. Amazing! Best day ever. And I could count on having that as every so often and it would be like the permission forms to go to camp and like they were the best letters to get because you were there like “Oh my gosh, I wonder who’s going” and as I got a little bit older and had Facebook, we’d be messaging each other going “Have you got your letter yet? Have you got your letter yet?” sort of thing. And that sense of community and friends. You didn’t even see them a lot, maybe once or twice a year but like, sort of like looking forward to it, I don’t know, sense of being connected even though you’ve not seen them in ages. Like, there was a couple of years where I went to the international camp one year, but the year before that I couldn’t go to normal camp because I had a family holiday my dad booked. So, there was a space of two or three years that I hadn’t seen the main group of friends from it, and it was completely fine going back a couple of years later and they were there like “Oh, we missed you” and that sort of thing and I was like “Yeah, I missed you too.”

Oh, that sounds lovely.

Yeah, it’s the sort of thing that you see the same group of people most years and you make really good friends, and it doesn’t seem that long that you’ve not seen them for if you go back it’s fine, like best friends, sort of thing. And it was really, really good in terms of I suppose community and making friends.

I know that when I was a bit younger, so around teenage, sort of about 16/17, it’s always in the back of your head like “Oh, will I meet someone that is actually tolerant?” sort of thing.

Yeah, just the sort of teenage hormones, like “Oh my gosh, what if I don’t find anyone?” and “Oh my God, I have scars, what if they don’t like them?” But I can’t do anything about them, and I don’t want to do anything about them so. Like, that sort of thing “Oh my gosh, am I going to grow old on my own?” Like, going to be a crazy cat lady!

I think it changes with the weather so if it goes from being a bit colder to being quite hot then it will be itchy and, in the same way, if it’s just really cold all of a sudden, it will be slightly itchy. But I guess hot weather more so but any sort of changes it can be. But extreme changes, so like when we have a heatwave and it goes really cold for a couple of weeks it will be a bit itchy and then, like, other times where, if it’s been like alright temperature and it gets really, really hot all of a sudden, it will be itchy then as well.

So, he, um… At the time, I really liked him. And I was worried at first, like, 'Oh my gosh…' Like, I had quite a lot of anxiety at this point in my life anyway, and I’m not sure why. It wasn’t to do with the burns specifically, it was just life in general. This was sort of in college and A Levels, really stressful, so I think it was just that on top of other life changes, so just stress and anxiety and just typical teenage hormones is not a good combination and so I had quite a lot of anxiety and I was very much like, 'Oh my God, nobody likes me' and this sort of thing. Then I got into a relationship with one of the guys at college and he was lovely, but I was very much like 'Oh my gosh, what if he doesn’t like these burns? What if he is bothered by it?' and what not. It took me, like, pretty-, it took me a couple of weeks and then I just basically turned round to him and said, “I have burns, do you care?” and he was just there like “Why would I?” and “Ok, this is fine” sort of thing.

From what I’ve been told, I was only 13 months or so. From what I’ve been told, I was sat in my highchair in the kitchen and my mum was boiling the kettle and making some just food and she turned round to take something off the hob, and it was like seconds or so that she was turned round, I managed to pull the kettle cord over me. So, the water just sort of splashed everywhere and down me. So, she got me out of the highchair, put me in the bath, like water running over me and I got assisted to the ambulance. That’s what I really remember from what I’ve been told anyway.

Like I said, on my arm and my leg not really. The one on my side, I don’t know, it’s day to day. Occasionally it’s a little bit itchy and it annoys me because I don’t like scratching it. And I don’t know why I don’t like scratching it but any of my burn scars, I don’t like scratching. I think it’s because if I get a cut on it or anything I just, I don’t know, it takes slightly longer, in my experience anyway, to heal. But it doesn’t heal bad, it’s just there for a little while but then the fact that it’s got like a scratch or something on it makes it itchier anyway, so I just don’t like messing around with them. It’s probably an instance where the moisturising would probably actually benefit me, but I don’t like doing it.

So, is itching a little bit of an annoyance?

Yeah. Sometimes, but I think it’s just like any part of your body, because I try not to scratch it, I just, I notice it more because anywhere else on my body I would just scratch it and move on with my life but burn scars I don’t like messing with, so I just leave them and then they annoy me because they’re itching. Doesn’t happen very often but when it does it’s “Oh for God’s sake!”.