IN the early hours of Tuesday morning, mum-of-five Alice Webb died after getting a non-surgical BBL.
She was just 33 and described by a close pal as ‘beautiful inside and out’.
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Sadly, while friends and family may have seen her in this light, it tragically didn’t stop the advanced aesthetic practitioner, who died at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, from going under the needle and copying endless stars like Katie Price and Lauren Goodger in a quest to get the ‘perfect’ hourglass frame.
The non-surgical, liquid BBL, which involves injecting dermal filler into the buttocks, devastatingly ended her life and has triggered MPs to call for a suspension of all BBL procedures in the UK.
GP and MP for Stroud, Dr Simon Opher, said the death of Alice is “absolutely tragic” and urged people not to have BBLs, as it is unknown whether the procedure is safe.
The news also triggered those who have taken their own life in their hands for the same procedure and have suffered crippling trauma because of negligent surgeons and practitioners.
Read more real life stories
One of those is Geordie Shore legend and The Only Way Is Essex star Sophie Kasaei.
Not only did she go under the knife in a filthy hospital in Turkey, but she also woke up to what looked like a murder scene.
And after hearing the heartbreaking news that Alice Webb lost her life after having a non-surgical, liquid BBL that “went wrong”, Sophie expressed her heartbreak.
She said: “People don’t expect to die through a liquid BBL. It breaks me hard. Especially as I’m trying for a family at the moment and I think she has got kids and left her kids behind. I could honestly cry for the girl.
“It is heart wrenching and it’s something that you don’t expect to happen through a couple of injections in your bum.
“I don’t want my children to grow up in a world where it is so easy to go and get fillers done cheap off anyone.”
The 34-year-old brunette, best known for her role on Geordie Shore, has opened up on one of her biggest regrets in life – getting a BBL.
In a candid interview with Fabulous, Sophie revealed all on her terrifying BBL journey and why she doesn’t want anyone else to make the same mistake as she did.
Being thrust into the spotlight in her early twenties was challenging for Sophie, and she explained that relentless criticism from trolls took a huge toll on her self-esteem, which eventually led to her going under the knife.
‘Constantly ripped apart’
Sophie told Fabulous: “I’d been on Geordie Shore for about four years and this was at the height of trolling. We were constantly compared to other celebrities, other reality TV stars.
“Magazines always had these glossy images of these perfect models but back then, when Geordie Shore came along, we were just so normal.”
As a result of horrendous abuse from both men and women, the Geordie legend didn’t think twice when she was offered a free BBL by a clinic in Turkey.
Whilst Alice Webb underwent a non-surgical, liquid BBL, Sophie went under the knife and was left botched by a surgical Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL).
But the BBL surgery is now banned in many countries due to safety concerns. In the UK, BBL surgery is no longer approved by The British Association of Plastic surgeons due to worrying complications, and a death rate of around 1 in 2,500 due to fat embolism.
Alice’s tragic death
Alice Webb, 33, was having a non-surgical BBL at a studio in Gloucester when it “went wrong”.
The mum-of-five travelled from her home in Wotton-under-Edge to a clinic in Gloucester for a training session where she would learn how to perform the procedure before having her own done.
She was rushed to Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary later that night, where she passed away in the early hours of September 24.
Her devastated partner Dane Knight, 38, posted a tribute online saying: “Want to say a heartfelt thank you to all family and friends that were here for us at our time of need, including all of the kind messages sent to my children and myself.”
Alice’s “second mum” Dianna Webb, 58, said she told her younger cousin she did not need the procedure only hours before she died after going under the knife.
A tearful Diana told The Sun: “We had talked about it a lot before she went to have the procedure.
“She had told me she was going to have this done and I said she didn’t need it – she already looked beautiful.
“And she was stunning on her own.
“We were on the phone for two hours before she went. Alice said they seemed really professional and put her at ease about the procedure.”
Two people have been arrested following Alice’s death, one of them Jordan James Parke, a Kim Kardashian-obsessed TV star dubbed the “Lip King”.
She explained: “It’s quite sad to think at the age of 24, I had these horrible insecurities that had been drilled into me from the press and public.
“I was just constantly being criticised, for being ‘ugly’ and ‘fat’, a ‘whale’, constantly ‘fat s**g’ and ‘embarrassing to society’, ‘giving Newcastle a bad name’, ‘pigs in wigs’, and they’d all say we look ‘like drag queens’. The list goes on and on and it’s horrible.
“I was just growing up in this new world, I wasn’t used to this industry. We didn’t know what social media was, we didn’t know what being in the public eye was.
“It just went down a really vicious cycle of me picking at myself at the age of 24. Now that I’m 10 years on, I look back and think that’s really young.
“I think it was really hard for us, because a lot of the Geordie Shore girls, we were constantly ripped apart, and it was really sad.
“And that was when the Kardashians started getting BBLs, and it was out there that they had Brazilian Butt Lifts and all that. I started comparing myself to a lot of other girls.”
‘Death never crossed my mind’
With little to no research out there about the procedure at the time, and the promise that she would be given an ‘unreal’ body, Sophie took the plunge.
She recalled: “I remember getting a DM from the clinic in Turkey, and they offered free surgery.
“I didn’t have any money because I hadn’t been in Geordie Shore that long, we were really really skint, and then I got offered surgery from Turkey for free and obviously they were selling the dream that I was gonna look like the girl I wanted to look like.
“So I was like, you know what? I’m going to fix it, I’ve been offered this for free, and if this is going to stop everyone hating the way I look and I’m going to be accepted in society because I look a certain way, then I’m going to do it. I’d do anything just to be liked.
What are Brazilian Bum Lifts and why are they so popular?
Buttock enlargement surgery – known as a Brazilian bum-lift (BBL) – is used to make the bum look bigger, rounded and lifted.
Surgeons transfer fat, inject filler or insert silicone-filled implants.
It is the fastest growing cosmetic procedure but also one of the most dangerous, according to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS).
Many patients are travelling to the likes of Turkey or seeking out unregistered surgeons in the UK and are not given full information on the risks.
BBLs carry the highest risk of all cosmetic surgeries – with more than one death occurring per 4,000 procedures.
Due to celebrities undergoing such ops, many women are hoping to emulate their looks.
Consultant clinical psychologist Dr Anu Sayal-Bennett, a chartered member of the British Psychological Society, told the BBC: “Despite there being so much about body positivity, there are pressures for women – and men too – to look a certain way.”
Many people travel abroad for the procedure because it is cheaper and advertising is “terribly seductive”, combined with the idea of a beach holiday, added Dr Sayal-Bennett.
“It’s just so sad. Honestly, when I think about it, I could cry.
“Thinking back now, it’s quite upsetting. I just wanted to be beautiful. I just wanted to be accepted and I thought the only way to do that was by changing the way I looked.
“So off I went and got the fat from my stomach injected into my bum.
“Nobody had it done by this point, it was a very new cosmetic procedure. So with a new cosmetic procedure, there’s not much research out there.
“I didn’t find anything bad. Everything looked great. I was looking at all these before and after pictures, and I was like, my god, this is so exciting.”
‘Absolute hell’
Prior to the surgery, Sophie described her bum as “flat”, as she confessed: “My bum was quite flat and I did start going to the gym, and I did start losing weight, but I could never get the bum that I desired. And I could never get the flat stomach that I wanted.
“I just wanted a flat stomach and a peachy bum. When I look at Kim Kardashian’s back in the day, that was massive, I didn’t want a massive bum. But that’s obviously what I’ve ended up, which I hate.”
I just wanted to be beautiful
Sophie Kasaei
But when she arrived in Turkey, the excitement quickly turned to fear, as Sophie shared: “It was very scary, going to another country on my own.
“I remember actually walking into this hospital, and it was at that point, it was just a normal hospital, but it was filth, absolute filth.
“And I remember thinking at that point, oh, my god, this doesn’t look ok. Something doesn’t seem right.
“But death never really crossed my mind. No one ever mentioned you could die from this. Nobody said it was that it was that invasive, that the potential risk was death.”
‘Murder scene’
Sophie, who is currently dating and living with TOWIE star Jordan Brook, 29, recalled the shocking aftermath after waking up from surgery.
She explained: “I can only explain it as absolute hell. I woke up the next day, and I was like ‘what the f**k have I done?’
“I remember looking in the mirror and my bum looked like it had been squashed. It was flat and it was black and blue.
“I had blood dripping everywhere. It was like a murder scene. It looked like someone came in and stabbed us.
“I couldn’t walk. I had bandages everywhere.”
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And things quickly went from bad to worse, when a luxury trip to Mexico ended up with an unexpected flight back to the UK.
Sophie recalled: “Six weeks after that I went on holiday to Mexico with an ex-partner, and whilst we were there, I started feeling really unwell.
“Then it progressed, and my left leg started getting shooting pains, and that was going right up to my back.
“My leg couldn’t move. It got to the point where my leg froze.
“When I was sitting down the pain was getting worse and worse and worse and worse. I was actually really scared, so I went to the hospital in Mexico.
I had blood dripping everywhere
Sophie Kasaei
“I had drips everywhere. They were all panicking. I couldn’t understand what was going on, and I thought, on this hospital bed, I’m going to die. I just know it. I’m gonna die on this bed in Mexico without my family.
“They gave us ultrasounds and everything, and they found out I had an abscess on my left bum cheek.
“So at this point, I’m thinking, what do I do? Because I’m gonna die. I’m just gonna die.”
‘You’ll be dead’
Sophie got on the first flight back to Newcastle to be with her family, but soon after, was having an emergency surgery.
She continued: “My dad was absolutely devastated. I got home and went straight to A&E and was rushed straight into surgery.
“I remember them saying, ‘we’ll have to slice your bum cheek open’. I was going ‘please, please don’t do that, please, please, I’m gonna be left with such a scar’, and they were like, ‘if we don’t do it, you’ll be dead.’
It was disgusting and the pain was awful
Sophie Kasaei
“I went through absolute hell and I could have died. My mum and dad could have lost a daughter through all this. How sad is that?
“When you’ve got a doctor looking at you in the eye, saying ‘you could die’, that’s when it hits home. Your mind races, you think about your family and then you have flashbacks of your life.
“It’s such a weird, bizarre feeling. Thank god for the doctors, for saving my life.”
‘There’s definitely trauma there’
Not only did the surgeons drain an entire litre of puss from Sophie’s abscess, but for the next six months, Sophie found herself in and out of the hospital.
She added: “Every other day for six months I had to go to the hospital to get it packed. I remember when they took the pack out, you could see the insides of my body.
“It was disgusting and the pain was awful.”
Never get a BBL, I’m begging. I’ve learned from my mistakes. I don’t want women to be losing their lives
Sophie Kasaei
Not only this, but the discomfort from the initial surgery was also hard to deal with, as Sophie recalled: “With a BBL, you’re not allowed to lie on your back. You have to lay on your front for six weeks.”
Sophie’s experience serves as a stark warning to others considering similar procedures, as she explained: “It was the most painful and most dangerous surgery. I can’t stress it enough. Nobody get a BBL. Do not do that.
“Never get a BBL, I’m begging. I’ve learned from my mistakes. I don’t want women to be losing their lives.
“I went through so much, but I’m here to tell the tale. Lucky for me, because not many people do.”
Sophie opened up on her surgery regret, as she continued: “It messed my whole body up, and I think it messed us up mentally. I am so traumatised from what happened.
“It’s left me with quite a bit of health anxiety. There’s definitely trauma there.”
‘Causing the wrong attention’
Now, years later, Sophie claimed that having the surgery, which she thought would fix her body confidence issues, in fact made them worse.
She explained: “I’ll wear a bikini and I’ll hate myself. My bum’s covered in cellulite. All the fat that was sucked from my stomach went into the bum and it’s just misshaped.
“I feel more unconfident now than I did back then.
“I hate it, it’s awful. I’ll try to lose weight, it won’t go down. It’s so unattractive.
“When I’m walking in the streets and I’ve got a jumpsuit on, I’m causing the wrong attention.
You can accept people dying from an illness, but not from being on the hospital bed for vanity
Sophie Kasaei
“I know people are looking at my bum. If I go on holiday, men are staring at this bum.
“I don’t want that attention. It just brings unnecessary attention because it is alien. It doesn’t look normal. People look at it because it’s not normal.
“If I go shopping or anything, I’ll wear a long jacket, just so the public can’t look at it because it just looks weird, it just looks wrong.
“I hide my bum from social media. I’m not confident about it at all.”
‘I was naive and uneducated’
Reflecting on her surgery, Sophie shared: “Now that I’m older, I think, why on earth did I give a f**k?
“I was young and naive and uneducated. I feel sorry for that girl, I really, really do. My heart breaks for that girl who wanted to do all that, just to fit in.
“I was naive, I was uneducated, and I was probably broken.
“But there’s a lot more information now. You hear about someone dying from a BBL. That’s not right at all. You can accept people dying from an illness, but not from being on the hospital bed for vanity. It is so sad.”
Sophie explained that more needs to be done to ensure that such beauty practices are carried out as safely as possible in future, as she shared: “Anyone in the UK can train to do aesthetics. I could go and do a course and I could be qualified in two days.
What are the risks of getting surgery abroad?
IT’S important to do your research if you’re thinking about having cosmetic surgery abroad.
It can cost less than in the UK, but you need to weigh up potential savings against the potential risks.
Safety standards in different countries may not be as high.
No surgery is risk-free. Complications can happen after surgery in the UK or abroad.
If you have complications after an operation in the UK, the surgeon is responsible for providing follow-up treatment.
Overseas clinics may not provide follow-up treatment, or they may not provide it to the same standard as in the UK.
Also, they may not have a healthcare professional in the UK you can visit if you have any problems.
Source: NHS
“There needs to be some kind of regulation there where you have to be a qualified nurse or someone who’s actually been to university or a doctor.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had family who would rather go to backstreet aesthetics because it’s cheaper for them. People just want cheapness.
“They don’t want to pay for someone who’s really highly registered, who knows everything. And I don’t know if we’re ever going to stop that.
“But look, if you really want to get certain things done to your body, do your research, that’s all I ask.
“Do your research and make sure these people are registered and have a history of being in the medical profession, not just someone who’s done a two day course, or whatever it is.
“People are dying from BBLs. If you want a BBL, stay away from it. Just have a pancake a**, embrace it. It’s not the end of the world.
“You can get bum pads these days, just don’t go through that. Do not be lying on a surgical bed getting yourself put to sleep for something so unnecessary.”
‘Never again’
As a result of her terrifying ordeal, it’s no surprise that Sophie, who is now trying for a baby, is put off surgery completely.
She admitted: “The only thing that I want to happen next in a hospital bed would be pushing a child out. I never want to be on a hospital bed again.
“The thought of being put to sleep now, now I think I’ll never wake up.
“I’ve paid my dues, I went through surgery, I’ve been honest about it. I was left with a gaping hole in my bum. I had to have reconstruction.
“I went through hell and never, never, never, never again. I’m done.
“I really hope it does stop. We need to put a stop to it.
“It’s a massive, massive risk and when you are signing these forms, read the risks that can happen. Just please.
“And one thing I’ll say is, just talk if you’re feeling insecure. Talk to friends and talk to family, and look at the complications of certain things, and that might put you off.”
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