The burns survivor shaking up the beauty industry

Catrin Pugh was just 19 years old when her life changed instantly - and irrevocably.

It was April 2013 and she was heading home to Wrexham after five months of working at a ski resort in the French Alps.

The coach she was travelling on was winding down a notoriously steep road with hairpin bends, when the driver suddenly started to shout that the brakes weren’t working. Out of control and gathering speed, the coach crashed into the side of a mountain and burst into flames.

“The coach almost instantly blew up. Everyone was screaming and I was alight,” Catrin said.

“My boyfriend ran towards me and grabbed me, and managed to throw me off the coach.

“I remember lying there, feeling this pain, and I lifted up my arm to see what it was that I could feel. And my arm was multicoloured; it was black, red, bloody. Skin wasn’t in certain areas that it should have been. But I still didn’t understand how much of my body was in the same condition.

“My clothes had burnt off. I was actually more bothered about the fact that I was laying naked in front of everyone than I was about the fact that I was burnt. Which is ridiculous, but in the moment you worry about the insignificant things.

“Everyone around me looked terrified. I looked like something you would see in a horror film.”

Catrin suffered 96 per cent burns, with only her scalp and the soles of her feet not ravaged by flames. She was airlifted to hospital, where she was put into an induced coma and given just a one in 1,000 chance of survival.

More than 200 operations followed. Her mum and brother donated their skin as almost all of hers had been burnt away. Several of Catrin’s fingers, too damaged to save, were also amputated.

Against overwhelming odds, Catrin pulled through - and it was then that the hard work really began.

She embarked on a gruelling rehabilitation programme, which pushed her to her limits both physically and psychologically.

"I did used to say things like, ‘It would have just been easier if I hadn’t made it’," Catrin said.

"It would have been easier not to have done all of that rehabilitation. Because it was hard work and it hurt.

"It was such a massive ordeal. I was 19, going on 20, and I was covered in scars. And it’s not like we live in a world where looking completely different is accepted, because people are supposed to look a certain way. So as a young woman with all of those differences, it was scary - it was really scary.

"But scars tell a story. They’re proof of something that you’ve been through and they’re proof of a battle that you’ve won."

Six years on from the crash, Catrin is living a life she never thought possible. Unable to even write at one stage in her recovery, she is now studying for a physiotherapy degree at King's College London.

She is also the face of beauty brand Avon, has modelled at London Fashion Week and works as an ambassador for Changing Faces - a charity that supports people who look different.

"I really had to think about it before I did it, because it can be really scary to put yourself out there," said Catrin.

"But I want to be able to make someone else feel good about the way they look, no matter what that is. I want to help people; I want to give that determination to other people.

"In 2013, when I woke up from that coma, I never thought I would experience again.

" But here I am today, in 2019, and my world has completely changed - and it’s been for the better."

• You can see more of Catrin's story on Welsh Lives, Thursday 11th April at 8:30pm.

• Or you can listen to the Welsh Lives podcast series on iTunes.