Sherry Bean survived brutal attack to become inspiration

Sherry Bean went to meet someone in the abandoned building in Pinehurst on March 24, 2003. She was supposed to have some pharmaceutical drugs with her, but she didn't have them.
The news apparently threw the person she met into a rage. He grabbed a brick and attacked her, smashing her skull as he hit her again and again. He raped her, and while she was naked, covered her with pine needles, set them on fire and fled.
Two tree trimmers saw her leg sticking out from the burnt pine the next morning. They called 911 and watched as she was rushed to the hospital. She was in a coma for four months.
When she woke, and saw that her arm was missing, she railed at everyone. She screamed in agony as personnel in the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center gave her baths in the tank room. She told her family to let her die.
Her mother, Patricia, camped out at the burn center, but Bean's depression only deepened.
Finally, nine months after the attack, and only two weeks before she was to be released from the burn center, her family confronted her and said they would put her in a rest home, if she wanted, and everyone would leave her alone.
She decided to start to work to get better and immediately became an inspiration to the same staff that had been the target of her anger. Today, she has moved home. She has spoken at schools in the area, urging young people to be careful in their life choices and especially to avoid being seduced by the drug culture.

"Life should go on and life is worth fighting for," she said. "I have a loving and understanding family and they have stood by me through the whole experience, and that's what I wake up for every day, knowing that my family is behind me, one hundred percent."