Just six months after she was born Shamiam Arif suffered 70% burns to her face, hands and body when a candle fell into her cot at her family's home in Kashmir.
Shamiam says members of her extended family in the UK raised awareness of her injuries and need for treatment Shamiam lost both her hands in the fire, so doctors carried out the Krukenberg procedure which split her forearms to produce two "fingers" on each limb. "They did an operation so I could blink. My nose was burnt off so they did that. My mouth was all gone. They used skin from my back and legs to fix everything up," she says.Having attended Challney High School for Girls in Luton, Shamiam has recently graduated from the University of Hertfordshire with a 2:1 BA in film production.
"Right now I’m looking into anything in the industry that can jump-start my career, like being a film-set runner, volunteering or my own projects.