When Danielle Sheehan, 20, scooped a £5K prize, her troubled childhood came flooding back – she knew what she’d have to splash the cash on…
As soon as I spotted the school gates my heart began to race.
“Another day in paradise,” I mumbled to myself.
If only.
Behind me, I heard the voices I dreaded every day.
“You ugly bitch,” someone yelled.
I kept walking towards the gates and desperately tried to ignore the bullies’ insults.
A half empty coke bottle smacked against my head.
My calm collapsed and I ran.
The gang hated me for some unknown reason
Finding a note in my locker from someone threatening to break my bones wasn’t unusual.
And being pushed up against a wall was just as normal.
‘Why me?’ I always wondered, crying in a toilet cubicle.
Somehow, I survived school.
But the constant cruelty left my self-confidence in tatters.
Starting college meant a new beginning and my confidence finally had a fighting chance.
Having a brilliant boyfriend like Ben, 21, really helped too.
But there was always something missing.
My 34C bust never looked right.
I wanted bigger boobs for a curvy, more womanly look.
Every time I told Ben about my implant dream he was quick to reassure me.
“You’re perfect the way you are,” he said with a loving smile.
But I wasn’t convinced.
I knew a boob job would make me happy.
If I ever saw my classmates again I wanted to be able to look them in the eye.
Only one thing was stopping me from slipping under the knife and that was money.
Scraping together my bar job savings, I was nowhere near my £4,000 target.
“It’s never going to happen,” I told Ben with a sigh.
I had almost given up hope when a friend introduced me to an online auction site.
“You can bid on allsorts,” she said, talking about milibid.com. “Laptops, phones, iPods. Anything.”
But it was the ‘Ultimate Makeover’ auction that caught my eye.
The website was full of items being auctioned and every item for has a timer that ticks down.
Whoever places the final bid when the timer hits zero is the winner.
The only catch is that the timer resets after every bid.
An hour of manic bidding for the ‘Ultimate Makeover’ had passed and I was still hanging on.
Each time the clock closed in on zero I felt giddy.
But as soon as the numbers sprung back to 2:00 I slumped back into my seat.
Other users came and went, but I wasn’t about to give up
As soon as someone placed a bid I jumped in too and timer instantly reset.
By now the bidding had reached £3.90.
That was my last bid.
With the timer slowly sinking, I realised I may be the only bidder left.
I clutched the sides of the keyboard as the timer dropped past a minute.
No one else had jumped in.
This was too good to be true.
I saw the clock reach thirty seconds.
Then the timer hit twenty.
then ten.
then Five.
‘Three, two, one…” I whispered to myself as the numbers flickered on the screen.
Suddenly the timer vanished and my username flashed up in front of me.
“Oh my god,” I cried out. “That’s me!”
Reflected in the screen, I could see my beaming face.
I was even more excited when milibid revealed I could spend £5k on whatever I wanted.
And I knew exactly what that would be.
I was going to have a boob job – and it had only cost me £3.90!
I found a great local clinic and booked a boob job worth £4,100.
Then I spent the extra £900 on a new wardbrobe to fit my new figure.
On June 19th I went under knife at Spire Clinic, Norwich.
That afternoon I left the clinic with size 34E boobs and Ben wasn’t complaining.
A month on from the operation and the swelling had gone down.
I was feeling natural and ready for a night out.
In a club toilet, a girl approached me and asked if my boobs were real.
“No,” I said, proudly.
“And they only cost me £3.90!” I said.
“They look amazing,” the girl said, “But those can’t have cost £3.90!”
“No one believes me when I tell them how much the operation cost me,” I laughed.
As I explained the auction, I realised I knew the girl from somewhere.
Then it hit me.
She had been one of the girls who tormented me at school.
Now she was desperate to be my friend.
And she wasn’t the only one.
Having the operation has made me so much happier.
Six months on and I haven’t looked back once.
I love the attention and I love the confidence my new boobs have given me.
Incredibly, all the boys who gave me hell at school are trying to add me on Facebook or gawking at me in bars.
But I only have eyes for Ben.
A boob job will never be the answer to everyone’s problems.
But, for me, my £3.90 boob job was the bargain of the century that helped me beat the bullies.