Attacked On The Loo

I thought my old school friend was pleased to see me...

Holly Ellis, 24, from Grantham, Lincs

- Emmie Harrison

Staring in the mirror, I scrutinised my nose – long, thin, with a big unsightly bump at the bridge. 

Like a witch! I thought. 

I was only 12 but I hated the way I looked.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ my mum Victoria, 42, would soothe. 

She knew I despised my nose, tried to tell me I was beautiful. 

But she couldn’t protect me from school bullies.

‘Scrooge!’ they’d laugh, making reference to the Dickens character with a long, pointy conk.

It reduced me to tears, and made me feel so insecure.

At 13, I went to a school in Newcastle for a year, before we moved to Nottingham.

I was still unhappy and my wonky nose made me self-conscious, miserable.

‘I want a nose job,’ I’d tell Mum – but surgery was expensive, I was still young. 

Despite my nose, I loved dressing up, partying. And, at 22, I went to uni in York to study Special Effects and Make-up.

Then, in February 2015, my beloved gramps Brian died, aged 66.

I was devastated. 

We’d been close, and he’d left me a £5,000 inheritance. 

‘I know how I want to spend it,’ I told Mum determinedly. 

Surgery. 

She supported me and, last 2017, I went for the op. 

I had closed rhinoplasty – where surgeons sliced through the inside of my nose and reshaped the bridge, leaving no visible cuts. 

When the bandages were removed 10 days on, I cried with joy.