Beauty expert has treated 30 Irish women for botched bum lifts this year alone

And Michelle Furey Lawlor reveals that her own clinic has so far this year had to help 30 women whose Brazilian Bum Lifts (BBLs) went haywire.

“Brazilian Bum Lifts have the highest risk rating of cosmetic surgery in the world,” says Michelle, who owns JeJuve clinic in Dublin.

“With BBL, you take fat anywhere in the body, it is put into the bum and what happens if it is put in a certain way under the muscles, near the veins and artery, they can actually pierce the veins and arteries and cause an embolism.

"These people can die. That’s why it’s the highest risk surgery at the moment.”

She says most of the women travel to Turkey to have the operation.

“If you go to Turkey for a BBL you are talking about maybe up to three grand, if you go anywhere else in the world to have a BBL filler in a proper hospital you’re talking about eight grand,” she says.

Her own clinic has carried out BBLs on over 600 women this year.

“We have trained staff to do what is known as BBL fillers, where we can train to put fillers anywhere in the bum and give them more fullness, but it’s above the muscle away from the veins and arteries.

“It’s a non-surgical BBL. We have had the guts of 600 women had this done this year, but we have had 30 women who’ve come in who’ve had botched BBL surgery done abroad.

“So, they’ve come in to us where they’ve had dents in their bum, or one side isn’t round like the other, or one side is flatter than the other and its causing massive body dysmorphia and we have to go back in and rebuild that side using dermofillers.”

Michelle, (41), who explains the situation on Virgin Media’s Lucy Investigates special on cosmetic surgery tomorrow, confirms that many women want a bum like Kim Kardashian.

“It’s because of the Kardashians that my industry has gone so big. People are familiar with the big round hips with the cheeks. Looking at her latest pictures, it looks like she has had it reduced and had liposuction to take half it out of her bum.”

Michelle says it’s not just botched bum jobs she deals with.

“A woman rang me this morning and she had surgery done in Turkey and her face is destroyed,” she notes.

Michelle herself has personal experience of how devastating a botched operation can have as she was a victim herself.

The mum-of-two says that she was always overweight, and four years ago decided to get something done about it in Turkey.

“I flew over and I had my surgery done. I woke up and all my fat that was cut off was left in a biohazard bag beside the bed. I had a tummy tuck and a sleeve done. I was bleeding profusely, nobody wanted to help me.”

When she arrived back in Dublin, her husband noticed how grey she looked and how ill she was and rushed her to St James’s Hospital, where she had six weeks of surgery to repair her body.

“They gave me a gastric sleeve and removed all the scar tissue, internally fixed my body. They gave me breast implants, a new nose and also gave me new gluteal muscles in my bum,” she points out. “I spent a year recovering, it was horrendous. I had to rebuild my body.”

Michelle, who is a daughter of Eddie Furey from the famous Furey brothers’ band, started out in the industry as a skin therapist and specialist before training in England in aesthetics.

She has since helped for free victims of domestic violence, and also has a huge interest in aiding members of the transgender community.

“In seven years of looking after domestic violence survivors I’ve saved 67 souls,” she reflects. “They’re from all walks of life, white collar, blue collar, Travelling community, immigrants, [including]some men that have been gay-bashed.”

Lucy Investigates, tomorrow, Virgin Media One, 9pm