80% of my body was burned - Ruth Matete shares painful story

The TPF winner disclosed that she was left scarred after a sufuria (pot) of hot porridge fell on her as a child while she was living in Kakamega.

“You see that scar on my back? That's just what you can see. When I was young, I got burned by porridge. I was barely walking. Dad says I was still crawling. Back in Kakamega. Mum had prepared porridge and ran out to do something. I crawled and touched the tip of the pot (sufuria) and it toppled over. Long story short, I burned 80%. I don’t know what that means, I just know it’s a lot of burning. The whole of my back, both of my thighs, parts of my hands, and a small part of my head,” she revealed.

Ruth Matete shows her scars (Instagram) Pulse Live Kenya

The burns made it difficult for her to wear revealing items like miniskirts, bare-backs and tank tops.“God was so gracious the parts that were burned are those I can hide with clothes. Now I know I was born to serve Him. Miniskirts, haiwes mek. Ooh tank top! Ooh bare back. Ooh see through. I can’t do such. Let's just say, God is wise. Daddy says it was so hard for me to be carried. They had to do skin grafting on some parts that were deeply burned. I keep wondering what part of my body was grafted to add to the deeply burned parts. Could the portion of skin that was cut to be grafted to other parts, be the one that could have added to my height?” she added.

We all have scars

Matete (veejaystudios) Pulse Live Kenya

She then went on to add that she shared this story in a bid to encourage somebody. “Anyway, before I bore you with the long story. This is what I would like to tell you. You may not have a physical scar like mine. Yours could be an emotional scar, mental scar, etc. It still is a scar. And it would be unfair to even say that my scar is worse than yours. Because we have different strengths. What seems easy to someone else could be very hard to another.

We all have scars. They say time heals all wounds. I don't agree. God heals all wounds. But even when the wound is healed, the scar still remains. Sometimes I go through hard times, and then I just look at all those scars. I pat myself in the back and say "Luxo, you overcame this. This too, you can overcome".In a battle, here is a winner and a loser. The loser sometimes dies, and the winner even though they don't die, they are left with scars. The scars prove, he fought but won.

What is that you fought and won? Or what is it that you're fighting? Don't worry about the scars. Don't hide them. Don't be ashamed of them. The scar is proof that you won. #Scars #Proudofmyscars #pysicalscars #Emotionalscars”