LOVE Islanders are notorious for scrubbing their social media in the days leading up to the Villa, leaving only the most polished snaps up on their feeds.
But open Sophie Lee’s page even today and the photos pinned to the top, from 2019 and 2020, show her with huge swollen scars protruding from her face.
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Personally I’m not surprised. As someone who interviewed Sophie twice right in the thick of her struggles, I know she’s different from some of the ultra-superficial women who grace our screens in their bikinis.
When I first spoke to Manchester-based Sophie, she was 23, and it was days before Christmas 2018. Fabulous was one of the first publications to share her story with the world.
Airy and bright during our chat, you’d have no idea what she was going through without visual proof. Her attitude was amazing, especially for someone so young.
A professional fire dancer, Sophie was permanently scarred when an air-con unit blew flames back into her face in a freak accident in April 2018.
After her face went up in flames, she spent a month in intensive care, and emerged from the trauma with a whole new attitude on life.
In her own words, the accident made Sophie “toughen up and grow a thicker skin”.
She told me: “I just have to accept myself for me. I think sometimes people stare because they don’t know how to ask. It’s not intentionally rude, I think they’re just curious and don’t know what to say.
“I never mind if people ask about my scars, then I can educate more people about what happened.”
Love Island weight loss plans, makeovers and even non-surgical tweakments are now common-place among the contestants, all religiously documented on social media as the competitive TV show enters its 10th year.
All Stars’ Gabby Allen even flogged her pre-villa fitness plan when she emerged as the show’s most recent winner.
Sophie, who had a five-figure following as an influencer well before Love Island came knocking, wasn’t immune to body confidence concerns before her accident.
She told me: “In school I went through that phase of ‘oh, I’m massive, I’m this and that,’ because I think you naturally do when you’re that age.
“Everyone’s judging each other, you’re growing boobs, you’re like ‘oh, I don’t know what this is’. I think everyone kind of has body issues going through high school.
“All my friends had big boobs or had legs, and I’ve always been a bit up and down on the scale of my weight.
“Especially with the industry I was in (of dance and performing), I was always scrutinised for how you look.
“But with this accident it’s crazy. Because the one time I feel like I should be most body conscious, I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been.”
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Despite early signs her facial scars were healing well, Sophie later developed dramatic keloids on her chin.
Keloids are benign tumours which grow in areas of trauma and are more common in people with olive or black skin, or in Sophie’s case having Chinese heritage.
She said: “Dancing’s all about getting dressed up, glitz and glam, I’ve always loved that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not myself and I know I’ll never be myself again.
“That’s something I have to accept and it has been hard to accept that – but also without this scar I would be dead. That’s the way I look at it, I don’t look at it as a burden.”
We spoke for a second time in June 2019, just weeks after Sophie had ground-breaking cryo surgery.
Never one to shy away from the gruesome details, or hide behind edited pics, Sophie’s PR pitched the story to me with an email entitled “My face came off in my hands.”
Without this scar I would be dead. That’s the way I look at it, I don’t look at it as a burden
Sophie Lee
Explaining the NHS-funded op at the time, Sophie said: “The scar started to die and then my face basically fell off. Liquid nitrogen was pumped in to kill it.
“At first it went massive, like it had been pumped up with water. It tripled in size, it was horrendous.
“In hospital I just felt like a giant slug, I couldn’t move or do anything.
“Then it just started leaking liquid nitrogen. Over the space of two months, it was starting to dry out and peel away.
“It was horrendous, the skin was dying and it was on my face. I couldn’t really move my neck, it was just so painful.
The scar started to die and then my face basically fell off. At first it went massive, like it had been pumped up with water. It tripled in size, it was horrendous
Sophie Lee
“When it actually detached I couldn’t feel anything, because it had already died.
“But at the start it was really raw, fresh skin. Showering was unbearable.
“For a good month I couldn’t really do anything. I had to change the dressings at least twice a day – they were soaking wet all the time.
“I couldn’t leave the house because I had to take so many dressings and pads with me.”
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She now keeps her dead skin in the freezer, in a small Tupperware box, explaining it’s “next to the peas, no big deal”.
Sophie, who’s been celibate for eight months, had the treatment in March 2019, as her tumours threatened to engulf her face.
She told me: “Keloid scarring is a form of benign tumour, it was going to carry on growing and slowly overtake my face.
“It was very painful and becoming a big burden. I had started to lose movement on my neck, because it was growing so rapidly.
“The scars got so big you couldn’t see my neck, it came down to my chin.
“Because of my ethnicity, being Chinese, it was really angry and violent.
“The longer I left it, the bigger the keloids would have gotten. I was in so much pain and it was starting to alter my expressions on my face.”
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Sophie always wanted to turn what had happened to her into a positive, raising awareness of injuries even in her early 20s.
She said: “I’ve got a younger sister who’s 16 years old, that was the age when I was comparing myself a lot.
“And I just want her to know that, your big sister can still do it and represent girls, I want her to feel proud of me.
“She looks up to a lot of my friends, looks up to me and I want to be that good example for her.
“It’s important to mould the next generation, not the current generation. I want to put them in a good mindset.”
Despite Sophie’s sunny disposition, she was clearly hugely affected by what had happened to her, which may be why it’s taken her six years to say yes to Love Island (I’d be stunned if they hadn’t approached her for previous years).
She told me in 2019: “I try not to think negatively, but I am in pain and you do think ‘when is this going to be over?’ I’m constantly suffering.
“Even now I can’t go outside when it’s sunny without having to cover up my whole face, because it’s fresh skin and I’ll get burnt really fast.
“I wear a black mask to protect it. It’s healed underneath but just to be safe.
“I don’t want to risk getting burnt, it’s not worth it. I’m still healing.
“But I am in the best hands and it’s important to talk about the good and the bad, because that means I can help others in this situation.
“I’m a normal person, I have feelings, I’m not just living this amazing life. I do have my down days, and it’s OK to feel like that.”
As Sophie jets off to sunny Mallorca to enter the villa on Monday, where temperatures are reaching 32C, the lack of black mask will be a stark reminder of how far she has come.
