Emma Thompson decided to get breast implants in 2006 which took her from an A-cup to a C-cup – but she soon began to suffer from severe heart palpitations, panic attacks and muscle weakness

A woman was left sleeping 20 hours a day after getting “toxic” breast implants.

Emma Thompson, 38, decided to get breast implants in 2006 which took her from an A-cup to a C-cup.

Within a few years of having the implants, the former DJ who now works as a recruitment director began to suffer from severe heart palpitations, panic attacks and muscle weakness.

Her symptoms became worse and she started sleeping for up to 20 hours a day and was too weak to climb the stairs or brush her teeth.

GPs were baffled by her condition that left her unable to walk at one point.

Emma decided to go to a functional medicine practitioner.

She was horrified to find out she had Breast Implant Illness as her body was reacting to silicone that had been passing from her implants into the surrounding tissue “and beyond” – a process called “‘bleeding”.

In 2020, Emma flew to the Netherlands and paid £4,000 to have her implants removed.

Now, she has celebrated winning a boxing match just 15 months after recovering.

Sporty Emma has regained her energy and has celebrated a spectacular boxing match victory – just 15 months since the debilitating symptoms had left her so weak she would struggle to even brush her hair.

She said: “When I had the implants out, I instantly looked like a different person.”

She added: “[Breast implant illness] can’t be denied any longer. I want to raise awareness.”

After the initial excitement of her bustier cleavage, Emma began to experience bad skin, panic attacks and feel exhausted no matter how much she slept.

This continued over several years resulting in her fearing she’d suffered a stroke when she collapsed at home.

Emma said: “I felt so much more confident and loved them but in the first few years my skin started to change.”

She added: “This is all linked to producing cortisol so that the body could continue to fight what it perceived as a foreign object.

“Sometimes I’d sleep for 20 hours a day then it would switch where I’d have that same level of exhaustion but couldn’t sleep.”

A month later she collapsed at home.

She said: “It was terrifying. I thought I was having a stroke. I didn’t understand what was happening.

“I rang my mum and she rushed down the motorway. We went to A&E and I was in hospital for three days.

“I left that hospital unable to walk through the doors because it was too far. I could barely get to the toilet.

“They did loads of blood tests and told me there was nothing wrong, they just dismissed it.

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“That was my life then for seven years. You feel a bit crazy because you know there’s something physically wrong.”

Her symptoms forced her to take time off work and she had to buy an automatic car because she was too weak to change gears.

Emma said: “I couldn’t even brush my own hair. I was exhausted. I used to have to use my left arm to hold my right hand in place to brush it. I had to shower sitting down.

“It was a case of when I was brushing my teeth, it was exhausting and painful.

“My legs used to burn so much by the second step of the stairs. I’d have to stop halfway up.”

Emma finally had her implants removed in July 2020.

Emma said: “They were half full when they took them out. When she [the surgeon] showed me, she said ‘look how much has bled into your system’.

“[After my implants were removed] all of the panic stopped, all the palpitations stopped. It wasn’t just physical symptoms. They were toxic.”

After experiencing an incredible recovery, Emma gradually built herself up, from running a slow 1km to attending Thai boxing once a week.

Earlier this year, Emma was able to start training intensely for her first boxing match and in October and won.

Emma said: “It was a very big process from then. I had to slowly build up.

She added: “I was ill up until they came out in July 2020 and I started training properly within a few months.

“The [Thai boxing] win was great but it wasn’t about the win. I knew I’d won and done well and that’s brilliant, but that moment was about everything. It was about everything that’d happened in those eight years.”