Facial palsy left me unable to close my eyes & needing a ‘smile transplant’…trolls can back off I’m a Celeb star Tulisa
WHEN vile trolls slammed Tulisa Contostavlos' changing face, after she entered the I'm A Celebrity camp, her friends rallied round to defend her - and opened up about the health battles she has faced over the last 12 years.
And one woman who knows exactly what she had been through is Bethan Robertson-Smith - who has been unable to work or have a partner for 16 years after developing facial palsy, the condition that has affected the N-Dubz star.
Now she has praised Tulisa's bravery in openly talking about her condition as ‘game-changing’ for the other ‘silent army’ of sufferers.
The 36-year-old singer was diagnosed with Bell's palsy - a neurological disorder that causes paralysis or weakness on one side of the face - in 2020 and revealed she had fillers to even out her face.
Bethan developed facial palsy after a terrible car accident in 2008, when she was just 22. The devastating effects left her with bilateral facial paralysis, unable to blink, close her eyes for sleep or smile.
Bethan, 39, from Bristol, said: “Nobody else can understand how having facial palsy can knock your confidence to rock-bottom, often without any light at the end of the tunnel – as a young, pretty woman, to suddenly see your face gone, potentially forever, it feels like your life’s over.”
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“For Tulisa to go on I’m A Celebrity and talk about her facial palsy, with millions of people seeing her with zero make-up on, it’s simply amazing – she deserves a medal, and I hope the awareness she raises has a massive impact for other people like us who are still living through this nightmare.”
Tulisa’s close friend Rylan Clark was quick to rebut any negative remarks pointed at her, saying on Twitter/X: ‘Also before people start going for appearance, Tulisa has been through a lot health wise the last few years so let’s not make s**t jokes about her on twitter yeah x. (sic)'.
Like Tulisa, Bethan has had facial tattoos to help improve her appearance as her condition makes it difficult to use conventional makeup – something which has also provoked reaction from viewers of the show.
Eleven years ago, Bethan had permanent eyebrows and eyeliner tattooed on her eyelids.
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“When you’ve got facial palsy, you want to do literally anything you can to look normal again,” Bethan said.
However, in a cruel twist, a consultant ophthalmologist at Bristol Eye Hospital recently told Bethan her eyelid tattoos could actually be making the effects of her facial palsy worse.
“I had the tattoos done 11 years ago and my permanent eyebrows had a massive effect as they helped give me a bit more facial expression than I had before.
“But because my eyes don’t close on their own – my left eye in particular – I suffer from terribly dry eyes, which are incredibly itchy and can lead to infections. On top of looking like I do, the pain can be torturous.
“The consultant told me the upper eyelid tattoos used in place of eyeliner can block the glands which produce tears, so could’ve contributed to my ongoing dry eyes – if I’d known, I’d never have had them done.
“It’s just taking so long for awareness of all these issues around facial palsy to come to light – it took me years to find out there was a specialist centre in the UK, during which time I could’ve had treatment to help me, but now, like my eyelids, I can’t turn the clock back.”
Traumatic Injuries
Until the accident, Bethan had everything to look forward to. She was pretty, popular and bright. She had left school at just 17, gone travelling in Australia and returned to fulfil her dream of training to become a veterinary nurse.
During the second term of her university course, she decided to drive home for a weekend but skidded across a wet road, straight into the path of oncoming car.
Bethan has mercifully few memories of the car crash that almost killed her. But one thing she can never forget is the moment she realised, after waking from a two-week coma, that she could not move any part of her face.
She was suffering from bilateral facial paralysis, meaning in that single moment of impact, every one of the 40 muscles in Bethan’s face had been paralysed. Her mouth was permanently open and dry, one eyelid was constantly closed while the other was stuck open.
"I was having to learn to talk, walk and eat again so this was just another thing on top of it all,’ she says.
"I was in my hospital room, peering into a tiny mirror trying to smile, and this blank face looked back. I couldn’t do anything."
The 2008 accident left Bethan with a skull fractured in four places, a bleed on the brain and traumatic injuries to the base of her skull that meant she had to be induced into a coma for 13 days. Although she recovered, the paralysis was to become the most enduring legacy of the crash.
A staggering 100,000 Britons suffer from facial paralysis, usually affecting just one side. It condemns them to a world without the many expressions we communicate through our face.
'Smile transplant'
Bethan has had more than 30 operations to try and improve her situation but says her life will never be the same again.
Although she had platinum chains implanted into her eyelids to help her blink, she still struggles with dry eyes and eye ointments and drops are part of her daily routine.
It is only now that Bethan can show her happiness once again thanks to an extraordinary ten-hour ‘smile transplant’ operation - otherwise known as facial reanimation surgery - where muscles from another part of the body are transferred to the face.
Tulisa is giving us a voice, helping us push for earlier diagnosis, better treatment and taking away the shame
Bethan
Bethan said: “I just feel like I’ve made almost no improvement since that accident – I haven’t been able to go back to my studies, I can’t work, I haven’t had a partner with no sign of that on the horizon. If my facial palsy had been properly treated sooner, things could’ve been so different.
“For Tulisa to open up to millions of people about her ordeal, it’s amazing – there are literally thousands of sufferers like us out there who aren’t getting the proper advice and support they should be, hiding behind closed doors for fear of going out into the world.”
“Social media is a complete no-go for me and so many others in our community because people are so quick to judge and be so cruel without any real understanding.
“Tulisa is giving us a voice, helping us push for earlier diagnosis, better treatment and taking away the shame.”
Karen Johnson, CEO of Facial Palsy UK says: “Anyone considering eyeliner tattoo should be made aware of the long-term risks of developing dry eye disease following this type of procedure.
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"Dry eye is incredibly painful and also affects your vision, so if you already have complications like Facial palsy, then it’s really crucial that patients are made aware that cosmetic tattoos could make things worse.”
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What is Bell's Palsy?
Around 100,000 people are thought to be affected by facial palsy in the UK.
There is a 1 in 60 lifetime chance of acquiring Bell’s Palsy, the most common form.
Bell's palsy is a condition that causes sudden, temporary weakness or paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face.
This occurs when the facial nerve, which controls the muscles of the face, becomes inflamed or compressed.
The exact cause is often unknown, but it is sometimes linked to viral infections.
Symptoms can include drooping of the mouth, inability to close the eye, drooling, and altered taste.
Most people recover fully within three to six months, although some may experience longer-term effects.
Treatment may involve medications like corticosteroids, physical therapy, and, in some cases, antiviral drugs.