‘This is me’: Mrs Hinch displays her scar from excess skin removal surgery

Cleaning queen Mrs Hinch proudly displayed her arm scar in an empowering post on Wednesday, after undergoing excess skin removal following gastric band surgery

The Instagram sensation, 30, whose real name is Sophie Hinchcliffe, underwent the £6,000 gastric surgery when she was 21, but was left in agony after it slipped two years later and became wedged in her oesophagus.

The star showed her 3.6million followers her scar from her excess skin removal in 2016 as she posed in her car in a pretty floral dress.    

She wrote: ‘In all honesty, I also like this dress because it also covers my arms.

‘Lots of you already know about this because it’s written in my first book but I had surgery on my arms once so I of course have been left with scarring but this dress makes me feel like my arms are covered.’

Zooming in on her arm scar, she continued: ‘Maybe this is a strange picture but… THIS IS ME and I think it’s so important for people to remember that everyone has their own story to tell, we are all special in our own way.’

Sophie has previously spoken about her ill-fated decision to have a gastric band fitted in an interview with the Daily Mail. 

Surgeons were able to move the band during an emergency operation. It no longer works but has not actually been removed.

She said: ‘The surgery works for some people. But for me, if I had known the complications and risks, I wouldn’t have done it.’  

After battling issues with self-confidence, Sophie piled on weight in her late teens.

‘I’d just passed my driving test, so I was able to go out in the car and get takeaways at McDonald’s Drive-Thrus,’ she said. ‘Before I knew it, I was eating for what felt like eating’s sake.’

Aged 21, she took out a bank loan to pay for the gastric band procedure.

But in addition to the slipped band, her dramatic eight-stone weight loss left excess skin on her arms. 

An operation to remove it in 2016 led to a serious infection and for a time she feared her left arm would have to be amputated.

She lost eight stone when the band was fitted in the correct place but was left with excess skin on her arms due to the weight loss.

In her book Hinch Yourself Happy, she said: ‘I kept getting problems with excess skin. It was getting inflamed and blistering. It was painful.

‘If I bought a size 10 or 12 top or jacket in a shop, it would fit me everywhere else but not the arms. I was smaller but I still couldn’t buy clothes in the size I actually was.’

After getting the skin removed, she developed an infection on her left arm, which caused both arms to ‘blow up to three times their size’.

Her arms were drained, with the star spending two weeks in hospital, and four years on she has recovered.