It’s taken more than 50 years for a New Zealand woman burnt by a hot jug when she was a baby to pluck up the courage to swim in a public pool because of her scars.
But with the encouragement of a group of young women at the pool, 56-year-old Donna Gregory-Marshall took the plunge on January 6 this year.
“I was absolutely beside myself going to the pool. A group of women just enveloped me. I’m forever grateful to them," Ms Gregory-Marshall told Seven Sharp.
“They hugged me 'cause they could see that I was going to start crying because I was starting to get a bit nervous, and then I just thought, 'Just take your top off and get in the water.'”
To this day, she still feel anxious, worried about other people’s reaction when they see her in a bathing suit.
“I was burnt when I was 11 months old with hot water from a jug,” she said.
Ms Gregory-Marshall endured 25 operations because of the burns, and years of healing both physically and mentally.
“I trained as a nurse and - not the girls in my class but other girls and even other people that we met on the way - they'd say things like, ‘Oh, you'll never get a boyfriend,’ because of my burns and stuff and it really takes a toll on you.”
The first day she went swimming on her own, she said it meant so much to her she rang her mum.
“Because it's huge for me,” she said.
Watch the Seven Sharp video above to hear more about Donna’s inspiring journey.
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