I did it to be like my friends – and half my lip died
PEER pressure contributed to Catrina Banks’s decision to go to a beautician to have filler injected into her lips at the age of 16.
‘All my friends were having it done so I thought it would be OK,’ she said. ‘But the first time I had them filled I was left with ugly lumps in my lips and cheeks.
‘I was told it was totally normal and I just needed more filler to even them out.’
But the second procedure left the teenager with painful swelling and bruises on her face which made it difficult to even speak.
‘The filler had migrated from my lips up into my nose and cheeks, leaving my face totally misshapen,’ she said.
‘Half my lip actually died – the blood circulation couldn’t get to it any more. I also broke out in tiny little white spots which we think was some kind of infection.’
Ms Banks, now 19 and a pensions consultant from Edinburgh, was eventually given a refund by the beautician who begged her not to tell anyone about the botched procedure.
‘I wasn’t going to speak out but then so many more people who had suffered similar disasters came out of the woodwork,’ Ms Banks said. ‘I wanted to tell my story to warn others.
‘Each procedure was around £210, which is extremely cheap. Looking back, that should have been a warning sign.’
The difficulties continued when a qualified nurse dissolved the filler in her lips and she had an allergic reaction which caused her face to swell again.
‘I think the new legislation should have been in place a long time ago,’ she said.