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MUM-OF-TWO RACHAEL PALMER HATED HER POST-PREGNANCY BODY. SO SHE SPENT £8,000 'FIXING' IT, LOST 4ST AND IS ALREADY PLANNING MORE SURGERY

By Kelly Strange

Most women accept the changes in their body after having a baby – either because they’re too frazzled to notice, or because motherhood has given them new things to worry about.

But Rachael Palmer refused to accept the way her body looked following her two pregnancies and has spent a staggering £8,000 changing it.

Not only has she had several nip-tucks but for the last 14 months the 28-year-old has been having regular Botox injections and lip-plumping procedures.

Rachael says she just can’t let herself go just because she’s a mum.

“If you’re not happy with what you’ve got, change it,” she says.

“What can be more exciting than seeing something you hate about yourself change overnight?”

She’s desperate to look the way she did before she had her son, Jacob, at 18, and her daughter, Amber, at 22.

“After I had Jacob I pinged back into shape,” explains Rachael.

“But with Amber I ballooned to a size 16 and lost my confidence. I felt I’d aged 10 years and I hated it.”

Rachael managed to diet back to a size 12 over the next two years, but her breasts had shrunk from a 34C to a 34B.

And sadly, her marriage collapsed shortly afterwards, leaving her even more unhappy.

“I was too young to hate my body and longed to feel sexy again,” says Rachael, who lives in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

So in November 2004, she used her credit card to pay for a £3,200 breast lift and augmentation to take her up to a 32F.

Rachael, then 25, was thrilled with the results.

But her joy was short-lived. Suddenly, she was obsessed with her stomach.

In Rachael’s eyes, it was saggy and marred by stretchmarks.

“I’d only been out of the operating theatre a few hours and I was planning more surgery,” she admits.

“Now I could see how effective it was, there was no stopping me."

“I work full-time in recruitment so I want to spend my spare time with my kids, not at the gym,” she says defiantly.

Nine months later, Rachael paid out £4,200 from her savings for a tummy tuck and lipo.

Surgeons removed 2lb from her stomach, and 3 litres of fat from her thighs, hips and bum.

“It was painful after but my stomach was flat and my thighs smoother,” she says.

Rachael had shrunk from a size 12 to a size 10, and weighed 9st 7lb – just right for her 5ft 6in frame.

But it wasn’t long before she was thinking about her next procedure.

“I saw photos of celebs after they’d had their lips done and thought I’d have it done myself.

Then I noticed wrinkles around my eyes so I booked myself in for Botox.”

Since then, Rachael has been having regular top-ups of both treatments at £120 each – every eight months for the Botox, once a year for her lips.

Her job is well paid, so she can afford to indulge her addiction.

She’s scheduling a facelift for when she’s 45, more surgery for her breasts every 10 years, and plans to have lipo again.

“I’m not doing this for a man,” says Rachael, who’s single.

“I’m doing it to feel good. Surgery’s addictive – when you see how easily something can be fixed with a swish of a knife, you start thinking about the next thing.

"And I won’t stop until I feel I’m perfect.”

 

What do you think? Have you ever had surgery and now find yourself wanting more? Or do you think women should stop striving for perfection and just accept themselves for who they are?

CLICK HERE TO HAVE YOUR SAY NOW AND JOIN THE DISCUSSION

 

For more information, visit www.lindabriggs.co.uk. Photography: Jamie Hughes. Hair and Make-Up: Oonagh Connor at Minx Agency