COURAGE UNDER FIRE [20/05/2001] PRODUCER: SARAH HALL REPORTER: ANNA KENNA Karen intro: She turns heads for all the wrong reasons. Heather Stewart was badly burned in a childhood accident. But instead of hiding away, she's out there touching the hearts and minds of others. Tonight a very personal story, not just for Heather, but for our reporter Anna Kenna who knew Heather as a child, played with her, and watched her live through the tragedy that scarred her. Tonight Anna tells of meeting Heather again after 30 years and being struck with admiration at what her old friend is now doing with her life. HEATHER STEWART (Reading): "That crazy rat," thought Wilbur, "Why does he have to stay up all night grinding his clashes and destroying peoples' property?" ANNA (V/O): These pupils of Royal Road School in Auckland are luckier than most, not because they’re hearing their favourite story, but because they’re learning lessons you won’t find in a text book. Heather Stewart is a rare and inspirational teacher, not only because of what she knows but because of who she is. Every day she teaches these children about tolerance and acceptance - lessons she’s learnt the hard way. While Charlotte’s Web may be a familiar story to these children, Heather’s own story, or at least part of it, is very familiar to me. We grew up together in the same neighbourhood. Kettle avenue, Palmerston North. In the sixties this was a new housing development, home to dozens of working class families and heaps of kids. I lived with my parents and five brothers and sisters at number 47. Heather and her sister lived down the road at 35. (TO CAM) It was a really happy neighbourhood, plenty of children around. Certainly no shortage of people to play with. Most nights after tea children would pour out of these houses around here and congregate on our front lawn to play. Course we're talking about pre-television days here. Yes they were really good times, until one day something happened here that blew our world apart. (V/O): It was a summer's evening, Heather, then nine, was playing at a friend’s place over our back fence. HEATHER STEWART: His father was burning some rubbish in an incinerator and I remember he asked us to stand back, and all of a sudden there was an explosion, and I remember everything going black and not being able to breathe. I remember being dragged across gravel and I also remember the smell of burning hair, and I guess, burning flesh. RON PURDY: I couldn't believe my eyes. Heather was like a golliwog. She was absolutely black with skin hanging off her. Her hands were here and her clothes were melting all around her fingers. ANNA (V/O): Heather's father, Ron Purdy, says he’s never got over the shock of seeing his daughter moments after the accident. RON PURDY: She was totally unrecognisable. The whole of her face, neck, arms, chest, everywhere was black, as black as your jacket. HEATHER: The ends of my fingers were burnt right through and they had to be amputated. I remember looking at my nails and it was sitting on a black stick. RON PURDY: I could see the bones in her forehead. The skin had completely gone. Her nose had gone, top lip had gone and all her fingers of course. ANNA: You were wearing an acrylic cardigan. I remember that because you used to wear that quite a lot. And I heard later that it melted on you and stuck to your body. HEATHER: Yeah it did and I was also wearing nylon jeans that clung to me too. I remember when I got to the hospital that they cut all the clothes off me. RON PURDY: “And so what's the prospects doctor?”, and he said, “50/50.” He says, “There's a 60 per cent burn area,” and most of them were third degree, that is right through the flesh. ANNA: When did you become aware of how badly your face was burnt? HEATHER: I don't think I knew for a long time. I do remember asking for a mirror for a long time and I think they fobbed me off. And I do remember when I did see my face, being terribly disappointed that it was as bad as it was. You have to realise that it's come an awful long way since then. TONY EMMETT: She and I embarked on this business of trying to remake her face. ANNA (V/O): Former plastic surgeon, Dr Tony Emmett, who now lives in Australia. He did much of the early work on Heather’s face and recorded every painful step. TONY EMMETT: Heather had burnt off virtually all of the skin of her face and she’d had skin grafts initially that had contracted and pulled up her upper lip so that she was unable to close her mouth, and her nostrils were blocked because the skin had pulled back. So the first operation was to replace her upper lip and the next operation then was to remake the skin of her nose. HEATHER: They took a full thickness flap from my arm here and pulled it away from my arm, and lifted my arm up and attached it to my head this way, so that the skin was over here. TONY EMMETT: The arm has to be kept beside the head for three weeks which means there are a large number of people you couldn’t do that on because they just wouldn’t tolerate it but I discussed it with Heather and she thought that would be alright, so we went ahead. HEATHER: It was all strapped up and I was told not to move. It was very difficult as a nine year old not to. TONY EMMETT: This is after the flap has been divided. She still needs support in this nostril. The skin needs to be reshaped but you can see the lip is down. She can close her mouth and the scars are settling. And you can also see there's a tranquillity in her expression and she’s accepting it all quite well. ANNA: But Heather says there were times when she was far from tranquil and accepting, like when she had to have the bandages removed from her hands. HEATHER: I had these huge, like boxing glove kind of bandages on them and when they used to take them off they’d take a bit off at a time and the blood would have soaked right the way through and they'd have to soak them and peel them, and I used to scream and they used to say, “Oh you're so brave.” And I'd think, “I'm not brave, I'm screaming.” ANNA:She must have gone through a lot of pain. TONY EMMETT: Oh yes indeed, she obviously had considerable reserves of personality that enabled her to do this. ANNA: So she was a pretty brave little girl? TONY EMMETT: Oh yes an extremely brave little girl. You couldn’t have asked for a nicer patient to have this done. RON PURDY: You never, ever heard her moan or groan, “why did it happen to me?” Never. ANNA (V/O): After months in hospital Heather eventually came home to face her friends. It was an event we both looked forward to and dreaded. (I/V): When you came home, a gang of us from the street came to visit you? I remember feeling really apprehensive about how you'd look. And then one of the girls with us fainted. Do you remember that? HEATHER: Yes I do remember that. I remember that quite well. ANNA: How did that affect you? HEATHER: I think I was a bit worried that I must have looked so bad that someone could actually faint through it, because I guess I was probably starting to come to terms with it and the rest of you were all very, very good. I could tell you were a little bit nervous. But then I was nervous too. And I also remember wondering if people were still going to be my friend because I looked so different. ANNA: Despite looking different Heather had to get on with life, accepting being stared at in public, occasionally suffering cruel taunts at school, but just learning to live with it. HEATHER: I think I just wanted to be like everybody else, so called normal and I just wanted to get on with life. Get back into it. ANNA: Over the years I lost touch with my childhood friend. We both left the neighbourhood with its good and bad memories and got on with our lives. Then, 30 years later we ran into each other in an Auckland shopping mall. There was lots of catching up to do. Heather told me she’d married in her 20’s and, although now divorced, has had no shortage of romance in her life. HEATHER: One special friend, man, who used to always say that I’m gorgeous and I could never understand it. But I guess what he was saying was that to him I was, and he’s not looking at the outside, he’s looking at me for me. And that's really quite special. ANNA: But there’s also been the heartache. Heather had a baby daughter but she died of congenital problems at ten weeks of age. HEATHER: It was a tragedy but it was so nice to feel that I actually had the opportunity of being a mother and doing that so-called normal thing again. It was nice to have been a mother for that short time anyway. ANNA: But perhaps the most astonishing thing Heather told me was what she was now doing with her life. HEATHER: It's definitely me. It's so nice to be able to do a job that you really enjoy, even though there's an awful lot of hard work involved in it and it does take over your life, it's something I really enjoy. ANNA: Heather had chalked up some time as an accountant but after visiting schools to teach children about burn victims, she found her true calling. It's a job she says where being different can be a bonus. HEATHER: I know that sounds really strange to people but it really has got pluses because I’ve got this instant rapport with kids because the first thing I talk about is me and my accident, and because I'm very comfortable with that, it means I can start off feeling comfortable with the kids and I let them ask any questions that they want to ask, whatsoever. ANNA: But while Heather was certain teaching was for her, her family and friends weren’t so sure. RON PURDY: I thought it might be too much to be amongst children because children don’t think. They say things without thinking which can be quite hurtful and she was taking a lot on to go in front of a lot of children everyday but however they took to her very well. GIRL: She's fun. She's the best teacher I’ve ever had. BOY: It doesn’t matter what’s outside, it's what's inside that counts. BOY 2: She's fairer than most of them and I feel really sorry for her about her burns. ANNA: Principal Neil Mahoney says Heather’s become an asset to the school although he confesses he did have some doubts when she fronted for the interview. NEIL MAHONEY: My initial, instant reaction was, this person is going to find it very difficult to make a go of teaching but when I’d spoken to her for about 10 or 15 minutes I became aware, consciously aware I think, that I didn’t see the burns anymore. ANNA: And while Heather has finally found her vocation, the man who gave her that second chance, and with whom she’s established a lifelong friendship, is now reshaping his own future. TONY EMMETT: I guess one of the things about sculpture and surgery is that each of them seeks to produce a shape which will produce a pleasing reaction. Of course in the case of surgery the reaction comes from the patient, and in the case of sculpture the reaction comes from the audience. ANNA: What do you think about the fact that he’s sculpting in his retirement? HEATHER: I think that’s really neat. One thing I always noticed about him when I was a child, that he had these thumbs that bent right back and they always looked like sculptors thumbs to me. And I thought that as a child. ANNA: And whilst she doesn’t have sculptors thumbs, Heather isn’t averse to a little craftsmanship herself. It's one of the few hobbies she finds time for outside teaching. (I/V): How functional are your hands now? Heather: I don't really think of them as a problem at all. I have all the movement of the main knuckles. But I always surprise people how I can tie a knot in a balloon. Seems to be my party piece that people get me to do, tie shoe laces. ANNA: Small triumphs, but giant steps for a little girl who had to pick up the shattered fragments of her childhood and build a future. For me it’s been an inspiration to meet her again and to see, in spite of all she’s been through, a successful woman touching the lives of others. (I/V): What do you hope young people will learn from Heather? TONY EMMETT: I think that young people can learn that in the midst of all this adversity you are still an individual who can achieve and become somebody, become what you want to. NEIL MAHONEY: For many of the children she teaches or has taught, as they get older and face those challenges they'll think back to when they were taught by Heather and they'll think, “Mrs Stewart dealt with real problems, she got over them. If she can do it, I can do it”. And we'll never know how many lives she's going to touch like that, but I’m quite sure, I’m absolutely convinced that that will be one real payoff the children in her class will get. HEATHER: I do want to be able to make a difference in these kids’ lives and I do want them to see that they can make something of themselves and that they can actually get through adversities and it doesn’t matter really what happens to you in life. It's how you deal with it and how you get on with it. I hope that they see that in me.