A mum has described the horrific moment her daughter's life changed forever when the five-year-old girl fell and pulled a boiling hot deep fat fryer over her entire little body.
Grace Shaw was playing with her younger sister Farrah in the kitchen-diner of their home in Talbot Green, Wales when she fell.
The burning liquid poured down over parts of her head, back, arms, legs and feet, leaving the tot in shock from the unimaginable pain, back in April 2016.
She was quickly covered in a damp towel by her dad Gary who then called mum Toni-Marie Grundy-Jones who was working in a restaurant five minutes away from their home.
Recalling the horrendous ordeal, Toni-Marie told Wales Online : "Before I had gone to work I had put the deep fat fryer on and cut some chips ready to put in it.
"After the chips had been made I had put the fryer to cool on the counter.
"It had been turned off for about 20 minutes when the accident happened.
"I was later told the fryer's contents still would have been 180 to 190 degrees.
"When I got home, Grace was just shaking and screaming in pain and kept on saying 'I'm dying, I'm dying'.
"We didn't even wait for an ambulance - we just drove her to A&E ourselves."
When Gary arrived at the doors of A&E with Grace cradled in his arms, Toni-Marie said they were taken straight into a side room where they were surrounded by medical staff.
"They were fabulous. We had eight doctors and five nurses all around her," she said.
"Grace had to be ventilated and sedated before being taken by ambulance to Bristol Children's Hospital."
For the first 13 hours of arriving in Bristol, doctors carried out emergency skin grafts on Grace and tried to stabilise her condition.
She was then sedated for three days and spent a fortnight in intensive care as medics carried out skin grafts and procedures every other day.
Toni-Marie added: "It was touch and go for weeks whether she'd make it.
"She could have picked up infections at any time."
The distressed mum stayed in the Ronald McDonald accommodation on-site in Bristol while juggling her commitments to younger daughter Farrah.
She added: "But when she came round from the sedation, looked at me and said 'I want black pop and raspberries' we knew she was going to pull through. She's just so strong and independent."
Grace spent three months in Bristol before she was discharged and now has regular appointments at the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Morriston Hospital in Swansea.
Now aged 11, Grace, who loves dancing, is flourishing despite everything she's been through.
But growing her hair remains an issue.
"Grace has a large area of her head that can no longer grow back because the hair follicles and fat tissue is permanently damaged," said Toni-Marie, who now lives in Llanharry, Pontyclun.
"She was kindly gifted a hair system in November 2020 by Jayne Bonds, of Bonds and Co in Penygraig, who read our story on WalesOnline and reached out to us on Facebook.
"Unfortunately, Grace's system has some damage to the scalp, which means her system needs to be repaired in Italy.
"Her head has also grown quite a bit.
"This means Grace would have to be without hair for roughly two months and being in high school this will be a huge confidence knock to her."
A GoFundMe page has been set up to try and get Grace a new hair system.
