#interplast

Yesterday I read a story about how acid attacks on women are common in places like Pakistan, India, Nepal and Cambodia. Women are brutally maimed, disfigured and murdered because they reject sexual advances or fail to wear a veil. A cultural mindset that thinks that's okay is unfathomable.

Coincidentally, my local Sunday paper today published a story about Turia Pitt, a beautiful young mining engineer and ultra-marathon runner who was horrifically burned during a fire which swept through an adventure race in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 2011. (The event organiser, Racing the Planet, refused to acknowledge any responsibility for its shoddy risk management and was slammed by a WA Government inquiry. RTP founder Mary Gaddams paid lip-service to the victims but displayed a cold lack of empathy during the inquiry, but that's another story.)

The difference between Turia Pitt and the poor acid attack victims, and other impoverished burns victims, is that she lives in Australia with access to the best medical treatment, while they struggle to survive. Ultra-endurance athletes are strong by nature, so it's no surprise that after two years of rehabilitation and surgery, she is walking, riding and swimming again and using a profile that was elevated by tragedy to help others.

She's cycling 3,716km from Sydney to Uluru in March to raise money for sick  and disadvantaged Australian children; then she's doing a five-day walk along the Great Wall of China for Interplast, an organisation that provides free reconstructive surgery to poorer parts of the world.

Turia learned about Interplast from her reconstructive surgeon, who volunteers every year, I've learned about it from Turia, and now you've heard it from me. I've donated because I think it's more useful than merely reblogging a story because it makes me feel sad or outraged.

Here's the link.