‘I thought crash had ended my Kate Moss modelling dreams’
SINCE she was 16, Denise Ohnona had been told she looked like the supermodel Kate Moss.
She had never thought much of it. In fact, she wasn’t too sure who Kate Moss even was.
But two years later Denise, who lives in Ormskirk, received a phone call that would change her life.
A modelling agency approached her, saying they wanted to work with her.
She said: “I wasn’t tall enough to do catwalk or runway modelling, but they were saying how I would be really good for swimwear.”
Before the modelling offer, she had been working as a shop assistant at Next – but the new opportunity meant she was able to sign to the agency and start a new career.
But on October 3, 1998, just days after the phone call, her dreams were shattered when she was involved in a horrific road accident.
She said: “I’d been in Liverpool during the day, but I decided to stay over which is something I never normally would do.
“My boyfriend at the time picked me up and the city was just like a ghost town, it felt like something was going to happen.
“We’d been in the car for about 30 seconds and then a double- decker bus crashed into us.”
In the impact, Denise was forced across the passenger seating, hitting the steering wheel.
She said: “My head was pouring with blood, I was screaming. It was completely split in every way – my cheek was pretty much hanging off.”
And the accident left her with permanent facial scars. She said: “When I first looked in the mirror at my reflection in the hospital and saw my face I screamed. “I started to cry as soon as I saw it.” Heartbroken by what had happened, Denise found herself becoming a recluse. She said: “After the accident, I wasn’t going out at all. I’d changed, I wasn’t the person I used to be. I was put on antidepressants.
“When I returned to my job at Next, I went to work in the office in the back – I couldn’t face people.
“I wouldn’t even go to the supermarket on my own, I needed someone to hold my hand.
“I never wanted to be in the limelight, my scars couldn’t even be covered up with makeup as I suffer from hypertrophic scarring.”
Over the next 15 years, Denise began the slow progression back to normality.
She said: “I moved back home and joined the gym and started weightlifting.
“The biggest thing for me was quitting sugar.”
She also became a mother to two girls.
She added: “People were still interested in me to do jobs as a model.
“My boyfriend would say to me that I should start it again, but I didn’t want to with the scars on my face.”
It was only in January this year that Denise, now 39, got the message that helped reignite her teenage dreams.
She said: “Alison Jackson’s [an English artist known for her lookalike photographs of celebrities] assistant found some pictures of me on social media.
“She asked me to do a flash mob with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle lookalikes and at the time I had a bit more confidence.
“I did the event and met some other lookalikes and thought ‘I can do this’.
Since January, Denise has been inundated with booking and requests.
She said: “At lookalike events you get booked, turn up and pose for pictures with everyone.
“But it can be different, when I went to Germany, I was taken to a studio and had my makeup done and outfit changes for shooting different products.
“And for Hallowe’en, I’ve been booked for a yacht party in London.”
As for the future, Denise said: “I never like to think too far ahead, I’m focusing on helping a homeless charity, but as long as people want me, I’ll keep on doing it.”