A mum who was left with horrific injuries after an outside pub heater exploded says her son refuses to sit next to her because he is scared of her scars.
April Charlesworth, 29, and her cousin had been out celebrating her birthday at the Kings Head pub, in Great Cornard, Suffolk, last April.
She was in the beer garden when the portable heater she was sitting next to exploded into flames.
The mum claims that a fellow drinker over-filled the portable heater with ethanol “for a laugh" and they had "kept telling him not to do it".
April and her cousin Ashleigh were left with severe burns after the heater ignited, spraying them with burning fuel.
April says she “just panicked,” as she realised she was on fire and Ashleigh, being a nurse, immediately did the “stop, drop and roll,” extinguishing the flames.
Ashleigh, 28, was left with severe burns on her chest and hands and needed to have skin grafts from her thigh to repair the damage.
April was given donor skin for her chest, arm and neck.
Hospital staff tried to keep mirrors away from the two women so they wouldn't see the full extent of their injuries, but Ashleigh saw her face reflected on the screen of a tablet.
She said she was "a sobbing mess".
Ashleigh insisted on sending a photo of her injuries to April, telling the BBC: "I wanted her to know it's not just her, we're both in this position together."
April says it was a long time before looked at herself in the mirror.
Since returning home from the hospital, April's eight-year-old son Franklin was so scared of her new face that he refused to sit next to her for months.
She said: "The worst thing is that we can't smile properly. I loved my smile before this. That really gets to me”.
The two cousins have taken to TikTok and Instagram to share their recovery journey and are building a community with other people who have also suffered severe burns or facial scarring.
Ashleigh said: "I started to realise that we may not look like we did but there is nothing we can do about that.
"That was me before and this is me now and there is no point looking at photos from beforehand."
The cousins say they were able to "get through it together” because they had each other’s support.
The police investigation into the incident is still ongoing.
The Mirror contacted Suffolk Police for a statement.
