Sue was teased as a child because of her prominent nose and chin but
after a complicated facial reconstruction she now feels like a different
person.
They called me Concorde or Anteater because
of my prominent nose and chin, says Sue Morgan-Elphick about the childhood
playground taunts from her school friends. She was constantly teased for having a strange crescent-moon face. I used to dye my hair outrageous colours
like Annie Lennox, and wore oh goodness fluorescent green and blue eye
shadow to distract from my peculiar-shaped face. As a child my bones just seemed to grow at
different rates. My lower jaw and chin lengthened and curled up until I could
gurn like Les Dawson with my chin touching my nose, and I couldnt close my
jaws together. But mostly I just looked
miserable and sour and people always assumed I was a grumpy personality, though
inside I have always been outgoing and cheerful. I avoided social gatherings and would always
sit so that no one could look at me sideways. As a teenager my dentist offered
me 3-4 years of braces before surgery, but I wasnt ready.
It wasnt until Sue trained as a nurse and worked in the operating theatre that she began to wonder if she ever could be made to look better. I watched him cutting and rebuilding other peoples faces and it didnt bother me at all, so one day I asked if he could do anything for me. Yes, you do look rather abnormal come to my clinic on Wednesday, he said. And so it started. I had meetings with a psychologist to make sure I understood exactly how I might feel after the surgery, and there were lots of people advising me. Sue wore rail-track braces for 10 months and had some extractions to adjust her teeth in the jaw before the operation. It was at this time that she met George on a holiday with friends, so he saw me at my worst, who later turned into her supportive husband and saw her through the painful ordeal of surgery. In 1994 the surgical team cut her scalp and pulled back her face in a cranial peel, fractured her nose and jaws, reshaped them, inserted 6 titanium plates and screws to hold the bones in place. Sue had a sunken look as her cheekbones were non-existent, so they took bone from her hips to build up some cheekbones which made a huge difference. I wasnt scared at all I was looking forward to appearing normal, says Sue.
Afterwards she looked as though shed gone ten rounds with Frank Bruno and then walked into a door, and it took a whole year for all the swelling to go down. I had step-daughters at the time,
Elizabeth
(9), Jennifer (7) and Cheryl (4), one of whom vomited on the bed when she saw
me! Now my children dont recognise the
photos of me before the surgery. My hair
is now blonde and I have two more children, Emily, 8, and Thomas, 7. When Emily saw the portrait painted by Mark
Gilbert of me before surgery, she said: That woman has my Mummys eyes. Im thrilled with the way I look I never
used to smile, but now I grin from ear to ear. The surgeons modelled my face from photos of my family members, and
people tell me I look more like my parents than ever before. I feel as though Ive lived 29 years in a
face that wasnt mine. It had been
suggested that my face shape may have originally became distorted during a long
difficult birth. Now, Im so happy with
my new face. Even my best friend walked straight past me when the bandages came
off. An added bonus is that with all
this metal in my face, Im pretty good at predicting cold weather!
It wasnt until Sue trained as a nurse and worked in the operating theatre that she began to wonder if she ever could be made to look better. I watched him cutting and rebuilding other peoples faces and it didnt bother me at all, so one day I asked if he could do anything for me. Yes, you do look rather abnormal come to my clinic on Wednesday, he said. And so it started. I had meetings with a psychologist to make sure I understood exactly how I might feel after the surgery, and there were lots of people advising me. Sue wore rail-track braces for 10 months and had some extractions to adjust her teeth in the jaw before the operation. It was at this time that she met George on a holiday with friends, so he saw me at my worst, who later turned into her supportive husband and saw her through the painful ordeal of surgery. In 1994 the surgical team cut her scalp and pulled back her face in a cranial peel, fractured her nose and jaws, reshaped them, inserted 6 titanium plates and screws to hold the bones in place. Sue had a sunken look as her cheekbones were non-existent, so they took bone from her hips to build up some cheekbones which made a huge difference. I wasnt scared at all I was looking forward to appearing normal, says Sue.
Afterwards she looked as though shed gone ten rounds with Frank Bruno and then walked into a door, and it took a whole year for all the swelling to go down. I had step-daughters at the time,
