Natalie, a former cleaner, was out for the day with her friend enjoying Beaujolais Day, the third Thursday in November, when Swansea – like many areas of France – celebrates the arrival of the first bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau.
Her life changed in an instant.
As she stood in the bathroom of Swansea’s Peppermint bar reapplying her make-up, she was set upon.
“I knew instantly it was a glass because you could feel the cold sharpness of it cutting at my face.”
She said she then remembers catching a first sight of her face in the mirror and seeing her “cheek hanging off”.
Ms Arthurs recalled how her friend Jenna was “screaming in terror” as the glass came towards her again.
The first attack slashed her cheek, with the second causing lacerations to her shoulder and chest.
“At that point I just remember fight or flight mode kicking in,” said Ms Arthurs, who tried to defend herself as she was “pushed and grabbed” by the woman.
The doormen of the premises removed the offender as they waited for police, leaving her in “a horror scene” with the floor “covered in blood”.
“I knew it was bad,” she said, “but didn’t know how bad.”
Ms Arthurs was taken to Morriston Hospital in Swansea by her parents after they were told an ambulance would take between five and six hours.
