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A woman whose forehead had to be reconstructed after a car accident is warning celebrities not to travel with their feet on the dashboard.
Gráinne Kealy's knees were slammed into her face as an airbag deployed during an accident, causing multiple facial fractures.
She says it breaks her heart when stars post pictures on social media of their feet raised as they travel in the passenger seat.
Sitting with her legs up left her with severe head injuries after a crash, leading to more than a dozen operations as she battled to regain her health.
Ms Kealy told Sky News that if sharing her "scary" photos is what it takes to raise awareness "then so be it".
In a post on Facebook, Ms Kealy features a series of pictures which celebrities including Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian and Hailey Baldwin have posted, showing their feet close to the windscreen as they are being driven somewhere.
That was how Ms Kealy was sitting in December 2006 as she and her then boyfriend went to do some Christmas shopping.
The barmaid was wearing a seatbelt and the car was travelling at only 37mph, but when the vehicle skidded on black ice and hit a wall in the Irish village of Borris-in-Ossory, the airbag deployed, sending her knees crashing into her face.
Ms Kealy, who was 22 at the time, suffered multiple facial fractures, cerebrospinal fluid leaked from her brain, and she lost two teeth.
Her injuries were so severe that surgeons had to remove her forehead.
"My head sunk in and I looked a little strange," she said. "I didn't recognise the face looking back at me."
Ms Kealy, now 35, told Sky News it scares her that celebrities are posting pictures of their feet on the dashboard which are being seen by "millions and millions of people".
She added: "I can't compete with that but I still feel like I have to try.
"It breaks my heart to think of anyone having to go through the hell myself and my family have had to go through.
"If it takes me sharing my story and my photos, as scary as they are, then so be it.
"It seems so obvious when you think about it. So please listen to me and learn from my horrible experience."
Ms Kealy has undergone 16 operations, from the initial one lasting 10-and-a-half hours, to the last one only a month ago to "have the dents at the sides of my head filled".
She has battled psychological problems too, saying she got "a few looks when I was out", adding: "I was so paranoid about my face I ended up just avoiding a lot of places.
"I tended to stick to the places where the people knew me.
"It took a long long time for me to be in a good enough place to be able to share my photos but I have to believe it's for a greater good."
Ms Kealy still suffers aches and pains but says they are more manageable now.
In June 2009, surgeons at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin made her a new forehead out of Italian ceramic which is so good "you would never know it was fake", she said.
https://news.sky.com/story/woman-who...ngers-11681610
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