But it wasn’t until a couple of months later, when the bruising had gone and 56-year-old Lyn looked fresher, happier and 10 years younger, that Nicki started thinking surgery could change her life for the better too.

At 34, it wasn’t something she’d considered before.

“I was desperate to get rid of my acne,” she explains.

“I never had it as a teenager – it started when I was 30 when I developed horrible red spots all over my mouth and chin.

"It made me self-conscious and paranoid.

"I wore heavy make-up and always held my hand over my face to hide my spots.

"No matter what I did, nothing made any difference.

"In the end I began making up excuses to avoid going out because I looked so terrible.

“I also hated the wrinkles and crow’s feet round my eyes.

"After seeing Mum’s new look, I longed to have some work done myself.”

Four years earlier, Lyn, a mum of two from Ipswich, had been diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a successful lumpectomy.

But chemo and radiotherapy had taken its toll and Lyn felt she looked old and tired.

So she splashed out £10,000 on a facelift, a neck lift, chin implant, upper and lower eye lift and brow lift.

“I’ve always been conscious of the fact that I don’t have much of a chin, but after the cancer my face just seemed to drop,” she explains.

“My jowls seemed saggy, and I looked a bit of a misery. People kept telling me to cheer up.”

Lyn decided to look into surgery and following a friend’s recommendation visited plastic surgeon Laurence Kirwan at his practice on London’s Harley Street.

“My husband John was pleased for me to have the surgery if it made me happy and my parents said they would help us out with a loan, so I decided to go ahead,” she says.

Lyn had the five-hour op at the London Independent Hospital in Stepney Green.

“I was amazed at how easy and pain-free it all was,” she recalls.

“I expected to be black and blue, but there was just a bit of swelling – two tiny bruises under each eye, a small one on my mouth and another on my neck.”

Within 10 days, Lyn was up and about shopping.

Now she loves what she sees when she looks in the mirror.

“I’m so pleased I had it done.

"It’s fantastic to have a proper chin.

"I have so much more confidence – I can’t believe the difference it’s made to my looks and how I feel,” she says.

When Nicki asked her mum if she thought it would be a good idea for her to have some cosmetic procedures too, there was no hesitation.

“I told Nicki to visit my surgeon and see what he could do for her – I knew how much her acne scars were upsetting her,” says Lyn.

Professor Kirwan recommended Nicki take part in his Kirwan Skin Care Programme to treat the acne, then undergo a non-surgical facelift using a combination of fillers to lift and smooth her skin.

The procedures would cost £2,000 in total – no small amount for Nicki, a single mum who lives with her 10-year-old son Tallon in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Luckily, Lyn and John, 56, a commercial vehicle salesman, had recently sold an investment property and were able to help their daughter out.

After 12 weeks on the skincare programme, Nicki’s acne had all but vanished and she was ready to go ahead with the fillers.

First she had Botox injections to smooth out her crow’s feet and soften two deep furrows between her eyebrows.

She then had a combination of Restylane Lipp and Laresse injected to plump her lips, and the filler Restylane Perlane to re-contour her chin.

“My face is transformed,” says Nicki.

“I never used to like my smile because of my lips, but now they look pouty.

"I have a much nicer chin and profile too.

"Best of all, my spots have gone and my skin is clear and radiant.

“I’m so much happier in myself, and I’m now planning to go to college to study interior design.

"I wouldn’t have had the nerve to do that before because of all the new people I’d meet, but now I look in the mirror and see a younger, sexier woman looking back at me – and that’s made me so much more confident.”

Photography: Rebecca Bradbury. Hair & Make-up: Caroline Piasecki at Time agency

For more information visit drkirwan.co.uk