{"id":104174,"date":"2025-11-26T09:50:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=104174"},"modified":"2025-11-26T09:50:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:50:03","slug":"burned-at-age-10-stigmatised-but-unafraid-of-never-getting-a-husband-a-burn-survivors-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=104174","title":{"rendered":"Burned at age 10, stigmatised but unafraid of never getting a husband \u2013 A burn survivor\u2019s story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 3 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Judith Cato Addison, a survivor and victim of a devastating fire incident, recently shared her journey of recovery, revealing the emotional and physical challenges she faced, especially after leaving the hospital.<\/p>\n

Judith recounted that the incident that occurred when she was just eight years old. Returning from vacation classes and feeling hungry, she decided to prepare a meal for herself, despite her mother\u2019s offer to do it.<\/p>\n

While checking on her food, she noticed a napkin smoking in the kitchen. \u201cBefore the napkin could come off where it was lying on the tube I heard a boom, the explosion and my body was on fire,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

Judith\u2019s screams immediately drew attention where a few people nearby quickly poured approximately two buckets of water on her, which helped to ease the burning. Her father arrived shortly after from work and quickly rushed her to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.<\/p>\n

Upon arrival, the young Judith faced a difficult wait. \u201cWe got to the hospital at about 3:30pm in the afternoon and till 10:00pm there was no doctor to see me.\u201d she explained, detailing the lack of facilities and staff to handle burn situations at that time. She further explained that swelling around her burns was significant issue due to the injury.<\/p>\n

Judith continued that transition back home proved to be more challenging than the physical recovery. Judith spoke candidly about the shift in how people perceived and treated her. \u201cLife was different when I got back from the hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople kept asking what happened to you and it became like a pity party,\u201d she added, explaining why she didn\u2019t want to go home but instead chose to go to the boarding house.<\/p>\n

Judith felt that her identity had been reduced to the incident. Before the fire, she described herself as a bubbly-lovely girl.<\/p>\n

After, she felt her life was boxed into what happened to her, shifting the entire conversation away from who she was as a person. She noted the awkwardness, saying that people didn\u2019t know how to say the appropriate things to her.<\/p>\n

Throughout her battle with burns and the stigma that followed, it never crossed her mind that she wouldn\u2019t find a man who would love her for who she is. She kept her faith in God, believing that she would one day marry the man she loves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I entered the house, I was in a hurry to see the mirror. I got close to the mirror and noticed that am I really sure I want to see? I took a second before standing in front; closed my eyes and opened and just started tearing. I spent the whole time in the room trying to adjust. It was hard to come to terms with who this new person was and so I cried a lot. Going through this process, because I accepted that it didn\u2019t look so good, I wasn\u2019t expecting people to think it looked great. I was merciful to myself and wasn\u2019t trying to please a man. I was part of the guys who would talk about the pretty girls in the class but it never crossed my mind once that I won\u2019t get a man,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, Judith is happily married with two children. They give her hope and strength to continue pushing the Beyond Burns agenda, championing and intensifying awareness of burn survivors in Ghana and beyond.<\/p>\n

\"Burned<\/figure>\n

Judith\u2019s story is a powerful reminder that the struggles of fire survivors extend far beyond the burns, highlighting the critical need for empathy and support in emotional recovery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"BurnedJudith Cato Addison, a survivor and victim of a devastating fire incident, recently shared her journey of recovery, revealing the emotional and physical challenges she faced, especially after leaving the hospital. Judith recounted that the incident that occurred when she was just eight years old. Returning from vacation classes and feeling hungry, she decided to [\u2026]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12910,8697,12911,1370,117,10,9,3962],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-burns-international","category-burn-survivors","category-judith-cato-addison","category-lifestyle","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-wellbeing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}