How doctors gave me my face (and my life) back: British teenager who was left horribly disfigured by a brutal acid attack in Zanzibar tells of her triumph over evil 70 operations later

18-year-old, from North London, had been volunteering at a school in Zanzibar

Five years on, the brave girl's recovery has been nothing short of miraculous 

The right side of her face and body were completely burnt by the acid attack

Her assailants, who used acid from a car battery, have never been identified

What started as the trip of a lifetime became the stuff of nightmares for Katie Gee in a single vicious moment.

The 18-year-old, from North London, had been volunteering at a school in Zanzibar when she and her friend Kirstie Trup were doused in acid in an unprovoked and now infamous attack by two men on a moped. The results were horrific.

Kirstie suffered burns to her arm, but it was Katie who bore the brunt. The right side of her face and body were completely burnt while her right ear was left shrivelled, black and useless.

Yet five years on, almost to the day, her recovery has been nothing short of miraculous, as our photographs attest.

And thanks to 70 operations – many of them gruelling 12-hour-long skin grafts – the dedicated care of medical staff and endless perseverance from Katie herself, her skin is almost completely smooth, the scars barely visible at all.

During the first three years after the attack, she had to wear a plastic face mask and full body compression suit for 23 hours a day and, last month, became the proud owner of a new right ear, masterfully sculpted from tissue from one of her ribs.

These details and more all form part of the extraordinary diary she shares today with The Mail on Sunday, charting her recovery from the day she arrived at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Today, the worst of her treatment is over, and the sociology student, who graduated from Nottingham University last year, wants to pay tribute to the extraordinary work of the Health Service – and to highlight the sheer destruction caused by a type of attack which is growing increasingly common, particularly in London.

Her assailants, who used acid from a car battery, have never been identified. 'In the first few years I barely went out,' Katie says. 'I had no confidence. People would stare and it makes you feel ugly and different, like a spectacle. I've come such a long way in five years.'