Meet the sensible ladies who life

Sue Reid12 April 2012
Carla Prior, 56, lives with her partner, Ian, in Kent. She is co-director of a successful publishing company, and two years ago underwent £4,000 worth of cosmetic surgery at a Harley Street Clinic.

I always believed that cosmetic surgery was something that only famous people did to their faces and bodies. I changed my mind when I met a surgeon at a party and started to talk to him about how I could rejuvenate my skin.

As a girl growing up in the Sixties I did a lot of sunbathing and never wore protective cream, so by the time I was in my mid-fifties I had brown spots on my face. When I looked in the mirror I saw crow's-feet at the side of my eyes and some fine lines. I am very fit. I work out five times a week and swim three times. I eat masses of fruit and vegetables and drink a lot of water too. But still I knew that my skin needed some help to turn back the clock.

When I went to see the surgeon Mr Ahmed Jawad at the Lanark Centre for Cosmetic Surgery I told him I wanted to take the laser not the knife route, and he recommended skin resurfacing using a laser. I had to have a general anaesthetic and when I woke up I looked like an Egyptian mummy. My face and head were bound with a very thick dressing with slits for my mouth and eyes. I had to stay at the clinic overnight and was given antibiotics to take in case there was any infection.

I took off the dressings when I had been home for 24 hours. I decided I would not look at myself in the mirror. My partner Ian told me my face was very red, but I had absolutely no pain and never used the painkillers given to me. I had to stay in the house for two weeks to allow my face to recover, and I had prepared for that by stocking up on books and videos. I also bought cans of Evian spray because after laser treatment you must keep the skin moist. At night you put on Vaseline.

When, after 10 days, I dared to peep, my face looked as if I had just returned from a skiing trip. After that every day it just got better and better. I saw all the brown spots had gone. The crow's-feet and lines had gone too. My skin looked pink and new. It was several shades lighter because the top layer of pigmentation had gone. The laser treatment also kick-starts the collagen production, so my skin had a plumper look. And it was more luminous, just like a teenager's.

Ian says that I look 25 again. He was shocked when he first drove me home in the bandages. But now he thinks the laser treatment has increased my confidence and self-esteem and given me a psychological boost. I don't think he would have been so keen on me having more radical treatment, a full facelift for instance. But he realises that a woman's appearance is very important to her.

My friends keep saying how well I look but, unless I confess to them, they don't realise why. Basically I have been given a second chance to look after my skin.

Lynda Carter, 52, is the manager of a corporate lawyers' office in Reading, Berkshire. She flew to Wraclow, Poland, for a full facelift and fat-replacement treatment at a private clinic, spending £3,000.

I am no shrinking violet and today I have a good job. But four years ago I was getting fed up of young blondes always being hired at interviews instead of myself. It was so frustrating and I knew it was because I looked my age. I decided I needed a facelift and started doing research. The English clinics seemed very expensive so I looked further afield at Poland and South Africa.

In the end I contacted Euromedica Overseas Cosmetic Surgery, which takes British women to Poland regularly for cosmetic surgery. I flew out last July and was picked up at the airport and taken to the private house where I would stay for a fortnight. The next day I was at the clinic by 9am.

The surgeon, Henry, had trained in America. I said I wanted a full facelift and undereye surgery. I have big bags under my eyes, but he refused to do them because he said it was not necessary. That was irritating beyond belief.

The operation was done under local anaesthetic. Two hours later I woke up in a side room and found myself completely bandaged up. I got dressed and took a taxi back to the house where I had to stay until the bandages came off. Every day I went back to the clinic so that the nurses, who were brilliant, could check the stitches and bathe my face in oils.

Then I decided that while I was in Poland I should have some fat replacement treatment where they take the fat from one part of your body and put it in your face to get rid of lines. I was sent to another clinic to a doctor called Peter. It took two hours to transfer fat from my knee to the top of my lip, my forehead and around my mouth.

Flying back I looked a bit bruised and got a few looks. But at work the following Monday they noticed there was something different about me immediately. In the end, because of the curiosity, I lied and said I'd had a facial peel. I didn't admit to having a facelift. After all, that isn't a crime.

The downside of going abroad is the language barrier and wondering what you would do if something went wrong. I couldn't understand the forms I was signing before the operation so I didn't know what rights I was waiving. On the plus side, by going to Poland no one can see you at your worst.

My husband William didn't want me to go at first. He was worried that something might go badly wrong at a clinic thousands of miles away.

It wasn't the idea of cosmetic surgery that frightened him but where it was taking place.

But now he thinks I look great. Younger too. I have a nice neck and jaw line. I can just feel the slightly raised scars although they are disappearing fast. And there are still the baggy eyes. I would like to have those done and can't decide whether to go back to Poland or try South Africa.

Susie Norton, 48, is marketing executive of an international computer software company. She lives with her accountant husband, Paul, and eight-year-old daughter Phoebe, in Maida Vale, and spent £2,500 on a blepharoplasty, or eyelid tuck.

When I had my eyelids done I was given a local anaesthetic, went down for surgery at 4pm and left the hospital at seven. There was no pain and I even had supper before going home. I was immediately pleased with the results and I think it is the best decision I have ever made.

For a long time I had noticed that my eyelids were drooping. I had given up on eye shadow because my upper eyelid skin was getting stretchy. It was very depressing. Then one day I was helping with the computers at the clinic of plastic surgeon Alex D Karidis at London's St John and St Elizabeth Hospital. He and I got chatting. He had already given me Botox treatment on my forehead lines, and I knew and trusted him. I was moaning about my droopy eyes and he suddenly turned to me and said: "You would look much better if you had them done." I had talked to Paul about it and he was surprised that I wanted the operation so much. But when I arrived back home on the night of the operation he could already see the difference. I had no bruising around my eyelids but they were a bit puffy.

Now Paul says that, in retrospect, he could sense I was unhappy about not being able to put eye make-up on properly any more. He certainly didn't have any objection to me having cosmetic surgery or me spending the money on it. It wasn't as though it was drastic: breast enhancement or liposuction. He viewed it as as minor procedure which had a very quick, dramatic result.

I had the operation on a Thursday, the stitches out on the following Monday and went into work on the Tuesday. By that time there was just a slim red line where the stitches had been. It looked like eye liner.

My friends and work colleagues have all commented on how much better my eyes look. Those few hours of cosmetic surgery have made an enormous difference about how I feel about myself.

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