I paid £10,000 for a facelift… but cruel trolls say it’s aged me

A woman who splashed out more than £10,000 and flew halfway across the world for a facelift says she does not pay attention to the trolls who claim the surgery has made her look older.

Jojo McGinniss, from Adelaide, Australia, decided to go under the knife after noticing some unwelcome changes to her face and her neck after entering her 40s.

The 45-year-old saved up the five-figure sum for half a decade before booking the first flight to Turkey, where she had a deep plane facelift, neck lift, temple lift, 360 liposuction and a facial fat transfer.

She had previously undergone a breast augmentation and an upper blepharoplasty to fix her hooded eyes, though both of those procedures had been in Australia.

This time, she spent £2,231 on her flight to Istanbul and a further £8,233 on the surgery which lasted a total of eight hours on February 17.

When she woke up from the procedure covered in bruises and bandages, Ms McGinniss claims she was ‘all swollen’ and asked ‘what the f***?’.

But after daily lymphatic massages, as well as body drains in her stomach, back and neck, Ms McGinniss is now delighted with her new look – even though mean social media trolls have said she looks ‘older’ and should ‘sue the surgeon’.

‘I didn’t want a drastic change, I just wanted to look more refreshed and snatched,’ she said.

‘My biggest concern was my neck, and I knew it was the right decision for me, even though people told me I’m still young. 

‘I’m still swollen but I’ve bounced back well and I’m really happy with it.

‘People say I look years older – or that I look exactly the same, but I have thick skin. It’s water off a duck’s back to me.’

Ms McGinniss, who was accompanied to the clinic by her 53-year-old partner Dave Pettman, began seriously considering surgery when she was 42, and settled on the clinic after years of research and online consultations.

People told her that she didn’t need the surgery at such a young age, but Ms McGinniss says she just wanted to look more ‘refreshed’.

But when she woke up and looked at herself for the first time, Ms McGinniss admits she got a bit of a fright.

She said: ‘When I first saw myself after the surgery, all swollen, I was like “what the f**k?”. But I knew it would only be temporary.’

Now back in Australia for her recovery, Ms McGinniss needs twice-weekly lymphatic massages to her body and face to avoid lumps forming.

The scars around the edges of her face have now healed to be near-invisible, with most of the swelling also having subsided.

She said: ‘I’m so happy, and I still look like me. I just look and feel refreshed.

‘People assume when you have a surgery like this, that you want to change a lot, but I didn’t.

‘I chose to share my journey because I know how overwhelming it can feel when you’re considering something like this, and I wanted others to feel less alone and more informed.’

Ms McGinniss said mean comments haven’t got her down at all – despite some saying the surgery has aged her.

She added: ‘I don’t think I look older, and I don’t know why people put others down like that, just sat behind a keyboard.

‘Some have said it’s a waste of money, but all I wanted was to look and feel snatched, and if I went back in time, I’d do the same thing again.

‘It’s a lot of money for quite subtle changes, but they’re exactly the changes I wanted.’