Mum scarred for life after friend bites a chunk out of her cheek

Laura Balloch had been visiting a friend's house when a fight broke out between her two companions on January 23, 2022. When the mum-of-two tried to defuse the situation, she says one of the girls bit her on the cheek in an unprovoked attack.

Laura says she was immediately taken to St John's Hospital in Livingston, Scotland, where she received a tetanus jab and stitches as nurses first believed she had been attacked by a dog. Horrifying photos show her cheek stitched up after a chunk of her skin was taken out of her face.

Following the attack, the 34-year-old says she spent five months being too scared to leave the house and claims she could smell her breath and still hear the crunching sound of her cheek being bitten in her sleep. It was only when she discovered aesthetics and had her first chemical peel six months after the incident that she says she was able to begin to turn her life around.

She now credits facial fillers for saving her life and has opened her own aesthetics business so she can make others feel confident in their own skin and help other women who may have gone through a similar situation to hers.

On January 18 this year, Laura's attacker was sentenced to community service and a compensation fee after being found guilty for the assault. Laura, from Livingston in West Lothian in Scotland, said: “I didn't leave the house for five months following the attack. When it happened, she had my face in her mouth and I was hitting her legs to try and get her to let go. There was blood everywhere.

“It wasn't sore at first. It was just really cold. I went straight to the hospital and they thought a dog had attacked me so I had to have a tetanus jab and was sewn up. It was just one continuous stitch on the inside of my cheek and then nine butterfly stitches on the outside. After the stitches were done they wrapped it in bandages so I didn't get to see it for a couple of days. I could feel it getting really tight.

“When the stitches fell out a week later I saw it for the first time and it was really swollen and my neck was bruised. I never left the house for five months. Mentally I thought I was crushed. Because the incident was so unforeseen I thought that if I left the house something else would happen. I was scared to leave the house and I had such bad anxiety.

“I then went to see an aesthetician and she gave me an acid peel and fillers in my face and after having this done I looked in the mirror and felt like I had my life back. This is when I realised that I wanted to do for people what she had done to me. Fillers changed my life and gave me a second lease of life.”

As well as being scared to leave the house, Laura said she was left unable to sleep and left her job as an account manager. But now nearly three years on from the attack, Laura's business NuYu Cosmetics and Aesthetics has been nominated for a best aesthetics small business in Scotland award. Laura said: “The healing process meant I was unable to sleep and I left my job. I am such a social person and I just lost myself completely.

“My son and daughter were young when the bite happened. I wore Covid masks around the house to hide it from them because my wound got infected and it didn't look very nice. Because the scar was so close to my mouth I couldn't open it. Every time I would go to sleep, I would feel the crunching and smell her breath. It would feel like the attack was happening again. I couldn't eat very easily because I couldn't open my mouth so I lost a lot of weight.”

Since being bitten, Laura has been going to therapy to help support her through the mental turmoil of the incident. She has also had two millilitres of filler put in her face, had four acid peels, dermaplaning treatment and has a microblading session every six weeks to help with the scarring.

Laura said: "If the attack hadn't happened to me I would have stayed in my old job. I feel more confident in myself now but without aesthetics I wouldn't. It wasn't just the physical effects of the scar, it was the mental side as well.”

Following the incident, Laura's attacker was found guilty and at a trial on December 12, 2023 at Livingston Sheriff Court. In court, her friend was found guilty of assaulting Laura by seizing her by the hair and biting her on the face causing permanent disfigurement. The defendant was sentenced on January 18, 2024 to a 15-month community payback order which included supervision, 150 hours of unpaid work and payment of £200 compensation to Laura.