THOUSANDS OF black British women are travelling abroad to have cosmetic surgery to enhance their bodies. 

According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) is now the fastest-growing cosmetic surgical procedure in the world. 

Since 2015, the number of butt lifts performed globally has sky rocketed by 77.6%. 

The BBL involves removing fat from one part of body, like the stomach, and then re-injecting it into the bottom – to give a fuller look.

The procedure has been labelled by experts “the world’s most dangerous cosmetic surgery”, as one in 3,000 operations result in death. 

In America earlier this year, 53-year-old Maxine Messam, died after being dropped off at a New York hospital naked from the waist down.

Police believe she was injected in the bottom with an unidentified substance and the botched butt implants proved to be fatal. 

In February 2019, mother-of-one Khelisyah Ashamu, 26, died after having a gastric bypass in Turkey and in August 2020, social worker and mother-of-three Abimbola Ajoke Bamgbose, died following liposuction and a BBL in Turkey. 

Despite the possibility of dying, many black British women are risking it all for the “perfect” bum. 

Speaking to The Voice, anonymously, Selina Campbell (not her real name), 43, from Leyton, east London, revealed she recently travelled to Turkey to have a BBL, tummy tuck and liposuction. 

She said: “I put on a bit of weight over lockdown, even though I am quite sporty, no matter how much exercise I did, I always had a bit of a belly. 

“I could never wear jeans or leggings without a long top because my stomach would always be sticking out or hanging over my waist.” 

Last April, after speaking to a friend who also had the same procedures, she decided to travel to Turkey in September 2021, for the operations.

The total cost for the three surgeries was £4,600 and the price also included her hotel stay, airport transfers and after care. 

Prior to going under the knife, Selina weighed 14 stone and was a UK dress size 14. 

She disclosed to The Voice, while she was staying at the Turkish hotel, she noticed a vast number of young black British women recovering after having a BBL. 

She said: “Istanbul is becoming like an international hub for surgery now, 

there was British women on every floor of the hotel, on my floor most of them were from London. 

“Given that we are only about 3% of the UK population, I would say a young black girls were overrepresented at the hotel and most of them had a BBL done.”

Selina stayed at the hotel 10 days before returning to the UK. 

Recalling her recovery, she said: “The stomach pain afterwards was horrific because it is like they cut you in half.”

When Selina returned to the UK, she developed deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and almost died – but insists she had the condition prior to having cosmetic surgery.  

“The DVT I developed is nothing to do with the surgery, they did nothing wrong, it’s a condition that can be bought on by flying, being inactive or having surgery and I did all three of those,” she stressed.

Selina told The Voice, she is now a UK dress size 10 or 12 and “is now very confident and has a new lease of life.” 

She urged anyone thinking of having a similar surgical procedure to “do their research, look at reviews and find out if the hospital or surgeon have had any deaths on the table.”

Selina is now planning to return to Turkey in a couple of years for a breast reduction. 

In UK, BAAPS has advised its members not to carry out BBL surgery until more is known about safer techniques of fat injection into the bottom.

BAAPS has warned BBLs are dangerous because the fat injected into large veins can travel to the heart or brain and cause severe illness and death.

The origin of the BBL can be traced back to Brazil in the 1960s. A celebrated Brazilian plastic surgeon called Ivo Pitanguy, is widely credited as the creator of the BBL. 

In Black communities having a fuller booty has historically been a desirable feature for women to have, long before it became mainstream because of reality TV stars and social media influencers. 

During the 2000s, popular culture was celebrating women with naturally curvier bodies and singers like Beyoncé and Rihanna were the faces of female body positivity. 

However, over the last decade there has been a shift to promoting a more surgically enhanced look of women’s bodies – which is driving the demand for BBLs.

According to research by ISAPS, the demand for Buttock augmentation – the procedure used to improve the volume and shape of the buttocks – has increased by 38.4% in 2019 and by 65.9% since 2015.

Susan Fleary, is a former secondary school teacher from northwest Birmingham, she had weight loss surgery in Belgium two years ago. 

She told The Voice, in 2013, she noticed buttoning up trousers was becoming increasingly painful and her stomach was so large people thought she was pregnant, but she wasn’t. 

She raised her concerns with her doctors but says she was quickly dismissed and told “its obesity”. 

She tried all the popular weight loss clubs, met with dieticians and tried all the fad diets but her stomach remained large and hard. 

She was eventually referred for a scan and got the shock of her life.

 “They found I had a very large fibroid, which was the size of full-term pregnancy,” she said. 

She added: “I was struggling to breathe, I had pain in my back and knees.”

Ms Fleary’s weight has spiralled out of control and she was a UK dress size 30 at her heaviest. 

She said: “After a while I stopped checking my dress size, I got to about a size 30 and after that I just stuck to elastic clothing.” 

Ms Fleary was told she would have to lose weight in order to have the fibroid removed or be considered for weight-loss surgery on the NHS. 

She put herself on an intense low-calorie diet and managed to lose five stone. 

In 2014, she had a gastric band fitted but now insists “it was the wrong procedure.” 

“The band doesn’t work, the tightening of the band around the stomach is very painful, I could feel it when I sat down and I was frightened to eat because I would regurgitate my food,” she added. 

Ms Fleary insists she was always hungry and “the hole for the food to pass through is like the size of a one pence coin and you have to chew your food like baby food.”

She knew this wasn’t going to work long-term and decided to research for an alternative surgery. 

In August 2020, after finding a surgeon on Facebook, she travelled to Belgium to have a mini-gastric by-pass – which cost her £5800. 

Since her operation, Ms Fleary has gradually lost weight and has gone from a UK dress size 26 to a 14.

She said: “I eat what I want and I eat in moderation and the right portion sizes. I’ve lost weight slowly but I am so happy.”

Ms Fleary told The Voice, weight loss surgery is not “a quick fix” and “you have to work extremely hard to keep the weight off.” 

She also encouraged those considered surgery to get a full health check done to ensure they do not have any undiagnosed health conditions. 

According to BAAPS, those returning to the UK after having surgery abroad are often in need of urgent follow-up care. 

They also warned of serious complications from BBLs ranged from severe bacterial infections including MRSA and Pseudomonas, tissue dying (necrosis), scarring, wound ruptures (dehiscence) and abscesses. 

Consultant plastic surgeon and BAAPS President-Elect Paul Harris said: “Medical tourism may not be a new phenomenon in itself, but in cosmetic surgery it’s clearly increasing at a galloping pace, and botched procedures are over-burdening our Health Service.

“Countries around the world vary in their requirements of medical professionals – some require insurance, some don’t, some follow a strict screening process or cooling-off period, and many don’t. Therefore, many patients find themselves having to rely on care back in the UK.”