Twenty-nine year old former America's Got Talent contestant Kechi Okwuchi was born on October 29, 1989. She grew up with her younger sister and attended boarding school in Nigeria.
She was going to school and living life like a typical teenage girl until she hopped on a flight in 2005 that would change her life forever.
At age 16, Okwuchi nearly died in a fatal plane crash that claimed the lives of 107 passengers.
“Fifteen minutes to the end of the flight, the pilot announced that we were soon to land at the airport. I remember I was sitting in an aisle seat, and my close friend Toke was on the aisle seat to my right. The ensuing turbulence was getting very frequent, but I didn’t think too much of it until someone from the back shouted ‘Is this plane trying to land?’ I couldn’t see out the window from my seat, but now I think about it that was probably for the best. Everything was so surreal in that moment. I turned to Toke, and we held hands, and I was like ‘Maybe we should pray?’ Before we could even start, there was this sudden shrill sound ringing in my ears, and next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital. To this day I don’t remember the actual impact of the crash.”
Okuwuchi and another passenger were the only two people to survive the catastrophic plane crash. Kechi Okwuchi had partially lost her vision in the accident. Over 65% of her body was burnt. In 2007, Okwuchi moved to Texas with her family for treatment at Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Galveston. She has undergone at least 100 surgeries to date.
“Lying down in the hospital bed with bandages from head to foot. Music was my escape, that’s why it means so much to me,” Okwuchi told Howie Mandel, Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum and Mel B. “I was completely covered in burns but I had a pulse … music was an escape, I sang every single day.”
Two years after the horrific incident, Kechi Okwuchi has overcome and resurrected from the grim reality that her skin reminds her of everyday. Besides singing, she invigorates people by
delivering speeches all over the world.
She graduated in economics with a First from the University of Thomas in Houston, Texas in 2015.
During her academic years, Okwuchi was a scholar. In college, she was inducted into six academic honor societies owing to her extraordinary brilliance. She has also been adjudged the most outstanding student for her major in Economics.
Now, she's coming out with a book, still singing and embracing her beautiful flaws.
"Visible or invisible🦋 see eh just love yourself, honestly," Kechi posts on Instagram. "No one can love you more than you. Well, except God lol. I’ve always said this and I still believe it."
"Love yourself doesn’t mean be arrogant or overconfident. It means acknowledging your flaws and scars as a part of you, while knowing that you are MORE than those flaws and scars. It means being KIND to yourself. It means taking care of your physical & mental health. I feel like it’s all these things."
We wish Okwuchi so many more years of health!
