The mum of a woman who gouged out her own eyeballs during a meth-induced psychosis gave a touching family update five years on.

Kaylee Muthart was just 20 when she ripped away her organs in a grisly act of self-mutilation because she thought it would save the world. And last month she spoke exclusively to Daily Star about how she deals with being blind.

Now her mum, Katy Tompkins, has taken to Facebook to praise Kaylee’s resilience after she bravely joined a gym. She wrote: “My beautiful sweet love Kaylee Muthart at the gym. I am so so proud of her and I thank God for her and her love for God.”

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Replying to the inspiring post that showed a gym selfie, Kaylee said: “Somehow, I knew this would end up on here lol, I love you so much! Always ok with me.” And her father, Phillip Tompkins, replied: “My beautiful beautiful daughter love her so much.”

Kaylee, 25, spoke to us in recent weeks from her home in Florida where she lives with her boyfriend Alex. She washes dishes at a Jimmy Hula’s restaurant but she has been to blind school and is finishing her high school diploma in the hopes of studying neurobiology.

She is also sober having spent time in rehab after her horrific episode all those years ago. But the recovering meth addict gave a profound insight when we asked her whether she contemplated how differently things could have played out.

Kaylee, who is originally from South Carolina, said: “That is the one thing I ponder a lot. I try not to think too deeply about it but I guess it does happen.

“I was probably thinking about that last night. But I guess when I open the window or crack the window for my cat in the morning, I wonder what it looks like out there. So when I open the window and stuff I think maybe God will help me see everything I have missed one day.

“I would like to see my loved ones get older, see what colour my cat is, I got him after I went blind. It’s like, imagine someone explaining to you what a character on a TV show looked like. They could tell you all the different attributes but until you look at them you will never know, you just won’t.

“Because I have seen before, my mind will not accept not seeing. They are called visual hallucinations and I kind of think of that as God not letting me be in the darkness.

“Even when you are blind it is not dark. I visualise like silhouettes of what I think is there. If I reach for it and it is incorrect it will change like that.”

And mentioning her drug addiction, she added: “Sometimes I think it’s a blessing that I am blind because even nowadays, if I ever do get a drug craving, which is very little, but in addiction when you have used the needle, you can imagine the blood going into the syringe and that is an eyesight temptation. You can’t really do it blind, you could do it I’m sure, but I don't know if it would be smart.”

Kaylee had prosthetic eye fitted three years ago and they were designed to look like her old pair, something that has brought joy to her loved ones. And she said it is the little things in life that now bring her happiness, from coming home to her cat every day to enjoying music.

And before her mum’s Facebook post, she also hinted to us about her ambition to get fit. She said: “We have a gym membership we are working on. I also have a guitar and I am planning on getting a piano. I only know like two songs on each but that is a passion of mine and singing too, so I go to karaoke on Monday nights.”

The day Kaylee’s life changed forever was in 2018 – a year she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and suffered a mental breakdown after a devastating breakup.

During this period she began to get high to suppress the feelings that were consuming here. And recalling the self-mutilation with Cosmopolitan, she said: “I was hallucinating, so my memories are fuzzy. I remember thinking that someone had to sacrifice something important to right the world, and that person was me. I thought everything would end abruptly and everyone would die if I didn't tear out my eyes immediately.”

She added: “I pushed my thumb, pointer, and middle finger into each eye. I gripped each eyeball, twisted, and pulled until each eye popped out of the socket – it felt like a massive struggle, the hardest thing I ever had to do. Because I could no longer see, I don't know if there was blood. But I know the drugs numbed the pain.”

Despite now struggling to talk about the trauma, she told Daily Star that she felt it was her duty to be truthful when people asked her how she lost her sight. Kaylee candidly explained: “I share what I have gone through to help somebody else, even if I think I don’t need to share this or I don’t feel like doing it right now, everyone has those moments, but typically I power through and it always turns out for the best. Someone always ends up feeling better in their own misery.”

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