AN acid attack victim who thought her life was over after being horrifically assaulted has found love.
Linneti Kirungi spent more than a year in hospital after acid was thrown over her as she walked to university when she was 20.
She remembers screaming in agony as the acid burned away her clothes, hair and flesh.
Linneti said: “I was as stiff as a statue. A passer-by tried to help by throwing water over me, but the acid was so strong that my hair weave burst into flames.
The attack was so painful, Linneti ran into traffic in a hope to end her misery.
She explained: “I thought that my life had come to an end. There is no way to understand the pain.”
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She says her ex-partner paid an accomplice to carry out the attack so she “would die or be disfigured”.
Her road to recovery was long and testing – but eventually Linneti was able to complete her university course in Uganda and try to move forward with her life.
But she developed a deep distrust in men following the traumatic experience with her ex-boyfriend.
She told the Mirror: “It took me a few good years after the attack to get close to a man again.
“I had so much hatred for them. Whenever a man would approach me I would think he was also going to do the same things my ex-boyfriend had done to me.”
Linneti had almost given up on love entirely after a string of let downs with men who couldn’t accept her scars.
She said: “I decided that love wasn’t for me, and I would just dedicate my life to helping others. But then it came out of the blue.”
Automotive engineer Dave, 42, from Weston super-Mare, Somerset, met online in 2020.
The pair bonded over their interest in helping others after Linneti set up an NGO to fund medical care and basic supplies for other burn attack survivors called Hope Care Rescue Mission.
Now the pair plan to marry next year after Dave visited her parents in Uganda.
She said: “Many men look at one’s beauty in terms of appearance, not the inner beauty, so a person like me with scars will always be seen as different from others and judged.
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“Even when you find someone and begin a relationship, they don’t feel comfortable. He doesn’t want to take you anywhere in public because he doesn’t want to be questioned.”
Linneti is grateful Dave doesn’t think like that, saying she’s “one of the lucky ones”.
