She opened up about her journey.

After becoming a young mom and escaping a violent relationship, Crystal dabbled with substances – though she stayed clean during her two pregnancies. However, being prescribed pain medicine for a bad back during her second pregnancy resulted in a dependency upon prescription drugs, which led to her using them between the ages of 21 and 30.

Crystal’s drug use then graduated to methamphetamine and eventually heroin: “Whatever I could get a funny feeling from, whatever I could numb my feelings and that same old coping mechanism that I had.”

‘Non-existent self-esteem’
Her mental health plummeted, and her self-esteem was ‘non-existent’.

After losing custody of her teenage child due to her drug use, things took a life-changing turn one day when the person who had abused her as a child showed up at the trailer she was living in.

“As soon as I saw his face, I stood up and, like, came flying out of the camper door. I can’t remember exactly what I was saying to him, but exchange of words,” she recalled.

“I was angry, instantly mad. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw my gas cans sitting there for the chainsaw that I had at the time. And thought… nothing’s ever gonna get better, he’s never gonna leave me alone.

“I would be better off because he won’t bug me anymore, and everybody would be better off ’cause I’m not gonna be a burden.”

This is when Crystal started pouring gas over herself.

Crystal before her injuries (Supplied)
Crystal before her injuries (Supplied)
‘I instantly regretted my decision’
“And I could taste the gas, it was burning my eyes,” she said. “And I could feel it running down my body, and I looked at him and lit the lighter, and it didn’t light. And I lit it again. And I instantly regretted my decision.”

Crystal was immediately engulfed in flames, with her remembering how she could smell her skin and hair burning, and taste the gas.

Thankfully, a tote filled with rainwater was able to extinguish the flames, and Crystal was rushed to the hosptial, where she was told she had just a five percent chance of survival.

A long and brutal recovery then followed, with Crystal admitting that she had ‘lost her whole identity’.

‘My eyes were stitched shut’
“The first time I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror… I was, like, shocked ’cause I had no hair, my eyes were stitched shut, I had no ears, most of my nose was gone now, my mouth doesn’t open the same, I lost my whole identity.

“Everything that makes you a woman, my breasts are now disfigured, everything.”