AJ Pritchard’s girlfriend Abbie Quinnen was overcome with fear that her Strictly boyfriend “wouldn’t love her” after she suffered brutal burns that left her with third degree burns to her face and body.
Abbie, 23, was so “embarrassed about how she looked” that the dancer initially refused to see AJ because she was worried he now wouldn’t love her.
The social media influencer had became incarcerated by flames after a online hack went terribly wrong and leaving her with life changing injuries.
Both Abbie and AJ were trying to recreate a social media stunt at their West London flat.
The hack was supposed to turn a wine bottle into a vase after being cut in half with a rope that had been smothered in a highly flammable chemical but it all ended in tragedy.
(Image: DIGITAL/EROTEME.CO.UK)
As soon as the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! star lit the flame the bottle exploded and within seconds Abbie’s hair was “caught on fire”.
In that moment, Abbie explained to The Sun that her “life flashed before her eyes” thinking that something like that “would never happen” to her.
With the top of her body now also burning she immediately dropped to the floor in desperation to stop the fire as AJ dosed her with wet towels.
Fortunately, AJ’s Love Island brother Curtis was on-hand to give the pair a speedy lift to the hospital – at the time ambulances faced huge delays due to Covid-19.
But her biggest fear was that she would lose AJ forever after needing skin grafts to repair her damaged skin.
She told the publication: “The first thing I said to AJ was, Is my face going to be OK? Are you still going to love me?”
“I kept repeating this to him and I was shaking in horror.”
Due to the severity of her wounds, she was transferred to a specialist burns unit at Chelsea and Westminster the following day to undergo further treatment.
Abbie’s face was so swollen that she’d become unable to see from her right eye.
Unable to see her reflection as there were no mirrors in the bathroom she used her phone to catch a glimpse of her reflection.
She said: “It was horrific. I could tell I looked like a completely different person.
“I looked so horrible and awful I was terrified about seeing anyone.
“AJ did try to come to the hospital to give me a bag of clothes but I was adamant I didn’t want him to see me like this. I was embarrassed about the way I looked.”
Although Abbie is finally on the road to recovery after having some success with recent operations that saw medics remove skin from her ribs to repair other damaged areas of her body, she now requires around the clock care.
AJ has become her full time carer changing her bandages every two hours.
The Instagram model had originally needed to take 27 tablets per day to stem her pain but having made improvements now only needs paracetamol.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
