Woman with 'biggest boobs in Britain' can't have surgery on NHS despite struggling to get out of bed every morning
For years, the idea 'bigger is better' has shaped beauty standards, with many women wishing for bigger boobs.
But one woman, who has the 'biggest boobs in Britain', lives with severe pain from her big chest and is crowdfunding to pay for a breast reduction because having the boobs women wish for has a painful reality.
Melissa Ashcroft, from Blairgowrie, Scotland, says she can't have surgery on the NHS due to her BMI, despite struggling to get out of bed every morning.
She said her 'back feels like I'm 70 years old' and it has got to the point that she 'can't pick up her daughter', while she doesn't want to take the pain medication, as it's making her 'dizzy'.
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Suffering from back pain since puberty, art 20 she decided she needed reduction surgery, but her GP apparently told her that it would be better if she waited until she'd had children and breastfed them.
"I think I've got some of the biggest boobs in Britain. I'm a size 36M," Melissa said in an interview on This Morning.
"I can't pick up my daughter and that's heartbreaking. I want to be able to play with her and pick her up.
"If I'm cleaning, I have to take a break until I'm out of pain. In the morning, I can't do anything until I've done my back stretches.
"I've got a picture of me when I'm 18 when I was a size 6 or an 8 and it looks like I paid to have these fake boobs."
One time, when she stood on the scales and asked her husband to hold her breasts, she saw that 'two-and-a-half stone came off the weight'.
In the past, she's tried things like physiotherapy but nothing has worked to relieve the pain.
A decade later, the now mum-of-two says that she can't get the surgery she wants on the NHS because her BMI is 35 and she's been told it needs to be 27 for her to get the green light.
She said that she 'can't go to the gym' in order to reduce her BMI for the NHS surgery, as the pain is too much for her to exercise.
Melissa, who has a slipped disc because of her heavy breasts, said: "They did say I could try the weight loss jabs, but two people in my family were on them. One had to have her gallstones out and one was left feeling sick after eating anything. I just don't want to feel like that.
"The bras in my size are £82 - which I can't afford - so I have to get a smaller size and it's still £20 a bra. And I've had to come off the naproxen they gave me as it was making me quite spacey."
In an interview with This Morning, Melissa spoke about how she was bullied when she was younger for having a flat chest.
She said: "Everyone else's [breasts] seemed to have stopped and stayed the same but mine just continuously grew."
Fed up of her large breasts being "heavily sexualised" and men staring at her wherever she went in the city, Melissa moved to rural Scotland where the only ones staring are the local sheep.
Melissa launched a GoFundMe to raise money so she can get the procedure done privately.
In 2022, Melissa says she got a private consultation who told her they could give her reduction surgery 'without the BMI restriction', though they have advised her to 'bring my weight down as much as possible.'
If she can get surgery she says 'it would mean the absolute world to me' and be 'all my Christmases in one day', and is planning a party if she can get the procedure done.
"It would be a complete life changer - I'd be able to play with my kids at the park and pick up my daughter," Melissa said.
Molly Lee