KATIE PIPER

None of my ambitions were serious as a girl. One week I wanted to be a lawyer, the next a binman.

I was living alone, so I'd get quite lonely and running became a way to combat my loneliness and de-stress.

There are so many things that can happen to us in life where you think, 'I can't cope. I can't deal with it,' but you probably can.

I don't have the answer to finding the balance because I think, well, maybe successful people don't switch off.

If I'm feeling down or depressed, working up a sweat will make me feel like I can really do this - that, in fact, I can do anything. It's like a therapy for me.

There were times after the accident when I felt very lonely - burns survivors can feel terrible isolation. I wanted to create something that connects us all together, so that was the idea behind the Katie Piper Foundation.

Everyone contacts me with the same questions: how can I be more confident? How can I get over my anxiety? And, without being preachy, I do believe that diet is so key.

My life is written about as though I've had this idyllic ending. But a marriage is something you have to work at.

I really cherish my family life, because at one point I never thought I'd have it.

I still have difficult days when I lose hours to anxiety, feeling my throat swell and my mind race with paranoid thoughts. But - thanks in part to ongoing therapy - they're happening less and less.

I don't think many people stare at people in wheelchairs because we see it regularly. I suppose if you see more in the media it will take away the curiosity.

I have been the beneficiary of donations in the form of human tissue and of a cornea which gave me sight when otherwise I would have none.

It shouldn't be down to charities to be the sole help for those who fall through the cracks.

I'm so lucky that I've always been able to laugh about things, even at my very lowest times.

It's so easy to butt into a conversation and offer your own thoughts or opinions, but try not to interrupt. Instead, focus on what the other person is saying, think twice and be the person that listens. It's so much more valuable than constantly talking.

I don't have to pretend to be someone I'm not and I think talking so openly about my story gave me acceptance that it's ok to be me.

I see it as someone who's been burned doesn't have to be put in this box where they can't be glamorous - I try and live that vision all the time and push those stereotypes away. That's all you can do.

It makes me very happy that people's perceptions of what's beautiful and attractive are gradually changing.

Have people like Kim Kardashian really fought their way to the top on their own? Or is that just the brand they want us to see. I don't buy it. I think we flourish by working together.

There was a time when I'd resigned myself to never having my own family, so to fall pregnant with Belle was overwhelming.

I feel like I've lived two or three completely different lives. At 33, I'm quite reflective and have the perspective you get in your old age when you have been through the losses of life.

Writing my first book, 'Beautiful,' was the time that I was able to write the truth of it - that I was despairing at times, that I got depressed and felt like I couldn't cope. Writing became about being honest.

But I like a challenge, anything I can't do it inspires me to learn it.

Of course, I'd like to fall in love and get married one day - my brother has just got engaged and I'm thrilled for him - but I'm not obsessing about meeting someone.

I was a torch carrier in the 2012 Paralympics and every time I thought 'I can't do this' I would look at the blade runners and the athletes and wheelchairs think, okay, I can run.