Katie Piper, British Model Disfigured By Sulfuric Acid Attack: 'It Felt Like A Fire Ball' (VIDEO)

This Friday 20/20 will profile 26-year-old former model Katie Piper, whose face was badly burned when a stranger threw sulfuric acid at her on a London sidewalk two years ago. "I thought it must be a big orange fire ball because it was so painful," she tells 20/20 in the clip below.

Of her life before the attack, Piper says "I was quite wild, carefree, 24 years old. I thought I was invincible."

Of her wholesome blonde looks, she said "Within my career they were the dealbreaker."

Piper suspected her ex-boyfriend Danny Lynch, who had become increasingly abusive, had hired someone to carry out the attack and lured her to an internet cafe to read a message he had written her. As she walked to the cafe, she says, "This guy starts walking towards me, crosses the road, and he's coming right towards me, and his eye contact, he's so focused on my eyes."

"And he had a coffee cup, and he had it right out here, so I thought, 'Well, this guy really wants me to give him some change' and I took my hands to get money out, and as I did and turned he just threw everything into my face," she said. "At first, I thought he's thrown coffee on me, because, he's in the street with a coffee mug. And then the pain was so bad I thought this guy's thrown a match at me...like visually I thought I must be a big orange fireball because, it's so painful and...so bad."

She's since set up the Katie Piper Foundation for burn victims.

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