The victim of an acid attack who planned to die by euthanasia has changed her mind after talking to Pope Francis in Colombia.
Consuela Cordoba had planned to end her life with the assistance of a doctor under the country's euthanasia laws, but when she met the Pope to ask for spiritual permission he refused to give it.
'You are very brave and very pretty,' Francis told her, prompting her to change her mind on the spot, declaring that she wants now to live.
Consuela was badly injured in 2000 when her former partner Dagoberto Esuncho threw acid in her face.
She said in a 2012 interview: 'I had perfect teeth, I was very pretty. But now, I'm destroyed. I've thought about committing suicide. I say to myself, why live? With a life like the one I have, what for?'
Consuela has undergone 87 operations and needs tubes in her nostrils to breathe, can only eat liquid food and needs to wear a mesh body suit at all times.
After she was recently diagnosed with a brain infection, she and her doctor agreed to end her life on September 29.
However, she decided to ask Pope Francis for permission when he visited Colombia last week, and was selected to talk to him.
The pair hugged before Consuela asked him whether she could end her life.
'He said "no", he was not going to do it. He told me that I was very brave and very pretty,' she said.
'That changed my life. Now I want to live.
'Dr Gustavo Quinonez was going to give me the injection, but I'm not going to do it because God is going to bring greatness to my life.'
She added: 'I am going to tell Dr Gustavo thank you very much for your injection, but it is for another.'
