StemCell Therapy

WITH her eyes swollen beyond recognition and her sight failing by the minute, reality star and TV presenter Lizzie Cundy was petrified.

Just two days earlier, the 51-year-old mum of two had had filler injected in her eye sockets in an attempt to get rid of her under eye bags.

11

Lizzie's self-esteem was in tatters after her boyfriend, nightclub owner Jeremy Gordeno, had also been seeing the 21-year old daughter of a previous lover in October last year.

"I was devastated," she says quietly.

"He could have been her granddad. It was such a betrayal. I couldnt sleep, my self-confidence was at rock bottom."

A friend recommended a new cosmetic treatment to boost her self-esteem Lizzie quickly booked an appointment.

"She told me she had had some filler in her under eye area to take away the bags and that it took 10 years off you. Shed actually had it done and she looked great," says Lizzie.

"It was a case of wanting a quick fix."

11

11

The practitioner had rooms on Londons swanky Harley Street, yet within minutes of the treatment Lizzie knew something was wrong.

Her under eye area had puffed up beyond recognition and as the hours went by her vision was blurring, leaving her panicked and terrified.

"I literally didn't know whether or not I would go permanently blind," she says, her eyes filling with tears at the memory.

"It was like something from a horror film my vision had gone blurry, I was blinking and blinking trying to focus and I just couldnt. I was panic-stricken."

Now she was desperately relying on the intervention of an experienced cosmetic doctor to save her sight.

"I thought of everything I would lose being able to look at my gorgeous boys all because I had been trying to improve the way I look. My heart was beating so fast. It was horrendous."

11

While little known, botched filler procedures have led to 200 documented cases of vision loss in recent years, with 35 in the UK alone being left blind in one eye or both.

It happens when filler is mistakenly injected into an artery, blocking crucial blood circulation to the optic nerve.

This can happen even when the injected area is much lower in the face.

"I didnt know any of this," Lizzie says. "Now it makes me sick to think I risked my sight."

Her terrifying near-miss which unfolded just three months ago - is one reason Lizzie has lent her voice to Fabulous's Had Our Fill campaign, calling for tighter regulations of the cosmetic treatment industry and urging people to do their research before they submit to potentially life-changing procedures.

"I want what happened to me to be a warning to others," she says.

"It was the scariest time and I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what I did."

11

No stranger to cosmetic interventions, Lizzie - who openly admits she had a boob job following the birth of sons Josh, 24, and 19-year-old James - is candid about the fact that she first turned to facial treatments in the wake of the 2010 breakdown of her marriage to former footballer Jason Cundy.

"I literally didn't sleep, I felt really tired, and I looked awful, so I had a bit of Botox in my forehead and suddenly I looked better. People told me I looked good considering everything I was going through," she recalls.

It quickly became 'shall I have a little bit more?'

She quickly moved on to facial filler in her cheeks and laughter lines - and it didnt take long before she was addicted to both fillers and Botox.

"It quickly became 'shall I have a little bit more?'. I would leave it a month and then I'd start feeling anxious and want a little top-up," she reveals.

But little did she know that this chasing youth would almost cost her her sight.

11

Had Our Fill campaign

BRITAIN'S Botox and filler addiction is fuelling a 2.75billion industry.

The wrinkle-busting and skin plumping treatments account for 9 out of 10 cosmetic procedures.

50% of women and 40% of men aged 18 to 34 want to plump up their pouts and tweak their faces.

Fillers are totally unregulated and incredibly you dont need to have ANY qualifications to buy and inject them.

83% of fillers are performed by people with no medical training, often in unsanitary environments - with devastating results.

Women have been left with rotting tissue, needing lip amputations, lumps and even blinded by botched jobs.

Despite the dangers, there is no legal age limit for dermal filler, which is why Fabulous has launched Had Our Fill, a campaign to:

We're working in conjunction with Save Face and are backed by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) and British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS).

We want anyone considering a non-surgical cosmetic treatment to be well-informed to make a safe decision.

Weve Had Our Fill of rogue traders and sham clinics - have you?

Lizzies television work, reporting from the red carpet, also left her under pressure to look younger.

"I was told by one boss that I had to take a few years off my age because it's a young industry. I felt that younger people were snapping at my heels," she says.

"The irony was that I'd never worked so much - yet inside I was really unhappy and lonely.

"Looking back, I probably should have spoken to a therapist but instead I thought another appointment with the cosmetic doctor would sort me out."

Then, in 2012 her straight-talking mum told her she had gone too far.

"I did a big photo shoot and afterwards my mum said, 'Lizzie you look different and it's not in a good way'.

"It was the wake-up call I needed, and I decided to embrace a more natural look, she reveals.

"A lot of people said I looked better so that boosted my confidence. I was in a much better place."

11

11

But when she discovered Jeremy, who she met in a bar near her Hampshire home in December 2018, had been cosying up to another woman, her old securities came flooding back and she returned for filler.

Yet from the moment the 15-minute treatment was administered by the therapist - who The Sun has chosen not to name - Lizzie says she felt uncomfortable.

"I could feel the injections were very near my eye - the needle was brushing on my lashes. I kept saying, 'Is this right?' but she just reassured me," she recalls.

Leaving the clinic, Lizzie could already feel her eyes swelling.

"I rang on my way home and said it didnt feel right - but the woman said that was normal. Then as soon as I got home, I looked in the mirror and it looked like there was a shelf under my eyes. It was also slightly burning."

Panicked, Lizzie rang the clinic again, only to be told to give her treatment time to settle.

"By the next day they looked even more swollen, so I actually went to my GP. He thought I might have a sinus problem and gave me antibiotics."

Back home her eyes continued to swell.

"I'd never had such a reaction like this. I literally had to put Vaseline over my face and all these different things to try and help. It just kept getting worse."

When she woke up the following morning her vision was blurry.

11

Fillers by numbers

2.75 billion - estimated value of UKs non-surgical cosmetic industry

59% - 13 to 24 year olds see lip fillers as routine as getting a haircut or manicure

68% - young people say friends have had fillers

160 - different types of dermal filler available for use in Europe, compared to only 10 in the US where they have tighter regulations

1,617 - complaints received by Save Face last year regarding unregistered practitioners

1.2 million - posts for #lipfillers on Instagram

3.9 million - Google searches for lip fillers in UK last year

40% - 13 to 19 year olds say images on social media cause them to worry about body image

She says: "I had to get up early for filming and my eyesight was already a bit blurry and my eyes were more swollen than ever.

"I was filming a documentary about Meghan Markle and kept thinking 'I cant let people down'. The make-up lady had done her best to cover the swelling but when I was looking at the auto cue, I literally couldn't read it.

"I was really blinking, trying to focus and it was really difficult and I was thinking 'I can't properly see'. "It was like something from a horror movie and I realised I had to act fast."

11

Lizzie rang the number of a cosmetic doctor who had helped a friend when she had lip filler that had gone wrong.

"I got his number, sent him a picture and he said, 'You have to come in now'," she recalls.

She got there as quickly as she could, only to be told by the doctor that the treatment was so dangerous that he had to try to dissolve it instantly.

Worse, there was no guarantee that the treatment would work.

"He said he could only do his best, but he had to attempt to get rid of the filler now before it did any more damage," says Lizzie.

"I was petrified. I had to keep my eyes open while he administered more injections round my eye socket praying it wouldnt make things worse."

Thankfully the treatment combined with a collagen wave, which uses radio frequency energy to smooth skin did the trick.

"Literally it was like watching magic at work, you could see it all going. The doctor told me I was incredibly lucky.I vowed never again."

11

Three months later she is still counting her blessings as well as vowing she is done with cosmetic injectables.

"Whats happened has given me a bit of kick up the backside - I know I have to have a bit more self-esteem because cosmetic surgery isn't the answer. Never say never but for now I want to learn to love who I am and to be the best I am at my age."

Lizzie is using vitybox as an alternative source of collagen.

Here is the original post:
Lizzie Cundy reveals fillers in eye sockets BLINDED her as she battled to stay young after catching lover - The Sun

This entry was posted on January 15, 2020 at 1:43 am and is filed under Eye Sight & Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |