Pam Warren (speaker)
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| Pam Warren | |
|---|---|
| File:Pam Warren (speaker).jpg | |
| Born | February 1967 (age 57) |
| Occupation | Writer, motivational speaker |
| Known for | Ladbroke Grove rail crash survivor |
Pam Warren (born 16 February 1967) is a professional speaker and author who became known in the United Kingdom as the 'Lady in the Mask' after receiving severe burn injuries in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash in 1999. She is the founder of the Paddington Survivors Group. She is a spokesperson and advocate for railway safety and the author of From Behind the Mask, a memoir of her life during and after the train collision.
Contents
Early life
Warren spent the first few years of her life in Singapore, before moving back to the United Kingdom with her mother when her parents separated.[1] She lived with relatives at the age of three while her mother worked, and did not see her mother during weekdays. Her mother eventually met and married Warren's stepfather, and they went on to have her sister. Though Warren was baptised Roman Catholic, she has Hindu family on her mother's side and was adopted and raised in a Church of England family.[2]
Ladbroke Grove rail crash
On the morning of 5 October 1999, Pam boarded the London-bound First Great Western train at Reading Station. At 08.07 (British Standard Time), the First Great Western collided head on with a Thames Turbo coming out of Paddington at over 130 miles per hour. A fireball from a ruptured fuel tank tore through Coach H of the First Great Western, the carriage Warren was on. Thirty-one people died in the crash, and Pam was among 520 injured passengers. Her injuries were so severe she was not expected to survive and her family were told to "prepare for the worst" by her medical team. She was in a coma for three weeks and skin grafts were added to her leg, hands and face. She suffered full thickness burns to these areas and underwent numerous operations by plastic surgeons. To minimise scarring, her doctors prescribed a clear perspex mask which she wore over her face 23 hours a day for 18 months.[3] This spurred the title of her book From Behind the Mask. She was in the hospital for close to three months.[4]
Recovery
In the wake of the train wreck, Warren exhibited symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She began drinking heavily and claims she was "horrified" by her behaviour – but was powerless to stop it.[5] About a year after the crash, she attempted suicide by overdose.[6] Urged to stop drinking by close friends, including fellow burn victim Simon Weston,[7] Warren stopped drinking entirely for twelve consecutive months, during which time she was campaigning for a safer British railway and doing charity work.[8] Although recovered from her physical injuries, Warren still has week-long bouts of PTSD depression about twice a year and suffers from occasional flashbacks and nightmares.[5]
Activism and charity work
Warren's experience of severe injury, stress, and recovery is the focus of her public speaking engagements. She has been extensively interviewed in the media across the United Kingdom.[9][10][11] Her message is that people can recover from devastation.[12][13][14] She frequently claims that, without negating the pain and suffering caused, in a strange way the train crash was the best thing that ever happened to her.[5][15]
Warren is an ambassador for The Healing Foundation Charity based in London, a charity that supports people living with disfigurement and visible loss of function. She also represents and works with The Dame Kelly Holmes Trust; a charity that strives to engage, enable and empower young people, and the Children's Burns Research Centre in the South West of England, funded by The Healing Foundation Charity.
From Behind the Mask
On 4 March 2014, Warren released a book titled From Behind the Mask which narrates her experiences during the Paddington rail crash, her recovery, and how it has affected her life and relationships.[6] The book's theme is that positive life transformation can evolve out of apparently senseless disaster.[16][17] The published book is the result of a second attempt. Warren felt her first attempt to write about her experiences was "too unemotional.".[18] 'From Behind the Mask' has been described as "true, soul searching account of life both before, during and since the Paddington train crash."[11]
Awards
In 2001, Warren was awarded the Frink Award at the Women of the Year Lunch. In the same year, she received the Bob Cotton Citizen Award by Unison, and, in 2012, she was nominated for 'local hero' in the Pride of Reading Awards. In March 2015, Pam was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award. [1]
References
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