Katie Piper: Health update as acid attack survivor returns to ITV's Loose Women

Katie Piper has given an update on her health after returning to our TV screens.

Appearing on Loose Women today (December 13) for the first time in six weeks, Piper explained that she took a brief leave of absence for a planned hospital procedure. The 40-year-old suffered an acid attack in 2008 which left her blind in one eye.

The procedure, known as tarsorrhaphy, means her damaged eye has been almost permanently closed.

Speaking to Kaye Adams on the show, she said: "I had a planned procedure called a tarsorrhaphy, which is a semi-permanent closure of the eye. So it's an operation done in theatre and your eye is sort of fully or partially stitched up.

"So some people might be familiar with it, you normally see it when somebody has some kind of disease of the cornea - and closing the eye gives it the optimum environment for it to heal.

"I've had quite a lot of problems with my eye in the last year-and-a-half. I don't like to go on about it because there's always somebody worse off."

Piper added that her eye has recently been "quite painful" and said the operation has made her much more comfortable.