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Viewer discretion advised. Themes include violence and graphic injury detail. |
Being shot in the face three times changes you. Not just how you look, but how you see the world, and how the world sees you.
It was New Year's Eve 2003, when Lottie's life would change for ever. Her partner's ex husband burst into the house, gun in hand. Bravely pushing her partner to safety, Lottie took three bullets from a .44 Magnum to the face, shattering her lower jaw and destroying the bones beneath her eye.
In a coma for several days after the shooting, surgeons battled first to save her life, and once stable, to then save her face. After countless surgeries, Lottie's face was rebuilt and was able to eat again. Later, she was able to talk again. But recovery from a life-altering injury like hers is rarely just a physical journey. Mental scars also need to be addressed.
Lottie now stands as a beacon of resilience, an inspiring advocate who has transformed her scars from reminders of pain, into powerful symbols of survival and strength. Her journey, once marked by unimaginable trauma, has evolved into a mission to empower others, encouraging them to embrace their own stories of healing and recovery.
Her road to recovery was filled with setbacks and struggles, but Lottie refused to be defined by her trauma. She committed to rebuilding her life and, in the process, discovered a sense of purpose. She realised that her scars were not something to hide, but a testament to her courage - telling a story of survival and rebirth that deserved to be shared. Today, as a proud ambassador to the Scar Free Foundation, Lottie is a voice for those who feel silenced by their wounds, championing self-acceptance and resilience.
Through her advocacy, Lottie not only raises awareness about gun violence but also speaks openly about the mental and emotional scars that accompany physical trauma. Her message is simple yet profound: scars, whether visible or hidden, are badges of honour. They remind us that we are alive and that true strength can often only be found in the darkest moments.
Healing does not have to be an effort to return to what was, but in can be a catalyst to take a courageous step forward into what can be. Lottie reminds us all that we have the power to transform pain into purpose, scars into stories, and survival into triumph.
Lottie Pollak - video transcript
I am probably the only person that I'm aware of who's been shot in the face three times and survived and can sit here talking to you.
So I was born in London in the middle of the '60s and it was a time of great energy and you know, my parents were hippies. And I think probably throughout my childhood that kind of relaxed attitude to change and the way my parents were kind of underpinned everything.
It was New Year's Eve 2003. My partner, she was in America and I was in the UK, and she was in the middle of a divorce. We had decided together that she would come and live in the UK with me, and I went over there at Christmas to pick her up and bring her home. We'd gone to the house that she had previously owned with her husband to say goodbye to the dogs. We were just taking the dogs into the house, and out of the basement he popped with a large gun.
So, I turned around and pushed her back into the garage and ran in the opposite direction, which unfortunately put me right in direct contact with a locked door.
He shot, caught me across the back of the head, and I did actually manage to open the locked door. As I opened the door, I must have turned around. And as I turned around, a further two bullets somehow went through my face, and the bullets that went through my face shattered my lower jaw and took out the bones beneath my eye. Her husband apparently walked straight back in upstairs and he shot himself.
So they took me to the hospital, and there was an awful lot of surgery that took place that night. And my wife says that what they said to her was, "If we didn't think there was a chance, we wouldn't keep going." Reading the medical records, it looks like I was in a coma for about eight or nine days. How close was it to death? Really, really close. As close as I'd like to go.
Throughout the process of recovery, there will be times where I've gone, "Man, this is just too much." And I think you have to remember that you are not alone. I had a big hole in my mouth, in my face where my mouth would've been. And I'm a talker, you know, I'm a talker, I'm a negotiator. I go to meetings, I talk to people, I make things happen. And talking is a massive part of what I do and who I am. Will I be able to have that same impact on the world, effect on the world? Will I be able to make people laugh? Will I be able to make people cry?
Being authentically you is an essential part of your survival, your development and your energy to do the next thing. These things that happen to you don't detract from you. They don't take anything away from you.
I did loads of things before I finally ended up working as a market research executive in a major pharmaceutical company. And now I am the head of market research for that company.
Being shot, it definitely hasn't changed my life for the worse. It's a hell of a story and it can be quite shocking. So it's not something that I necessarily talk about. Having said that, having a quite distinct look, having some scars isn't necessarily a bad thing. They're not going to forget my face. And that is a huge advantage. Remember that you, behind those scars, are exactly the same vital, important, delightful person that you were before.
If you can hang on to who you are, it is who you are that will take you through that, and you'll come out the other side being you with a few scars, with a bit of injury, but still being you.
END CARD
Lottie Pollak became an ambassador for The Scar Free Foundation after being shot in the face three times.
Following the shooting, she spent several days in a coma as a team of surgeons battled to save her life. Plastic surgeons have since helped to rebuild her face, restoring her ability to talk and eat.
She campaigns to help people with scarring, reminding the world they are not a mark of tragedy, but a sign of being alive.
