7/7 victim's remarkable healing

A woman who suffered severe facial burns during the 7/7 terror attacks in London five years ago is showing off her new face to the world.

The image of Davinia Turrell holding a gauze mask to her injured face came to symbolise the horror of the bombings.

Five years on, her facial scars are gone thanks to specialists at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

To show her gratitude she is backing the hospital's £50,000 fundraising appeal to help fellow burns victims.

Remarkable healing

The 29-year-old, who is now called Davinia Douglass after marrying last year, survived the fallout of the detonated bomb at Edgware Road station, but the "ball of fire" created in the carriage scorched the skin from the left side of her face.

Davinia told the Evening Standard: "I walked through the entire length of the train. I remember people screaming and sounding shocked as I walked through the back carriages.

"I didn't realise I was injured, I was still in shock. I remember telling people that I needed to get to work."

Photographers captured her as she was helped across the road to a makeshift A&E station by former fireman Paul Dadge while wearing the protective mask.

Mrs Douglass was subsequently treated at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital - the only hospital to offer a specialist burns service in London.

She said: "I went from being convinced that I would be seriously scarred for life and that my life would be ruined, to being hopeful that the medics who were looking after me would be able to put me back together as I had been before."

The hospital's appeal hopes to provide the unit with its own burns psychological screening programme to ensure all burns in-patients receive psychological assessment - something that was not previously available to Mrs Douglass.

The Chelsea and Westminster Health Charity has already raised £50,000 towards the £100,000 target needed to fund a clinical psychologist for two years.

Greg Williams, burns service lead at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "At present, patients with burns receive excellent care to ensure their physical recovery but we do not have the resources to provide psychosocial assessments for all the children and adults we admit.

"Were we to have a screening programme in place we feel strongly that we could identify potential psychological issues, address them early and help with recovery."

An unofficial ceremony was held in London's Hyde Park on Wednesday to mark the fifth anniversary of the 7 July bombings.

Survivors and families of those who lost their lives laid flowers by 52 steel pillars which represent those killed.