Former model from Horsham celebrates one year since gruelling surgery

Faye Louise, from Horsham, chose the messy stunt as a show of support for the Stand Up To Cancer campaign. She said: “Orange is their colour so they suggested sitting in a bath of baked beans or dressing as a carrot and going running. I said 'what about gunge?'.”

Faye was gunged with 15 litres of orange gloop in a pub garden (Image: Submitted) Faye began to experience pains and bloating in spring last year and an ultrasound revealed an ovarian cyst filled with fluid.

She underwent a laparotomy – a surgical incision in the abdominal cavity – to remove the cyst. Surgeons said they could see some swelling in the appendix, so while they operated, they would also remove her appendix.

Unfortunately, surgeons discovered a cancerous tumour in Faye’s appendix. They decided to leave the appendix in to prevent it rupturing and leaking cells into other organs.

Faye carried out her messy stunt to raise funds for Stand Up To Cancer (Image: Submitted) Weeks later, the tumour ruptured, spreading cancer cells around Faye’s body and she was diagnosed with the very rare and potentially fatal pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP). Faye needed an operation colloquially known as “the mother of all surgeries”, which involved removing eight of her organs.

She said: “When the cancer metastasised, it spread like a gel and stuck to all my other organs.”

In an 11-hour gruelling operation, Faye had her appendix, spleen, gallbladder, greater and lesser omentum, fallopian tubes, uterus, ovaries and part of her liver removed. She had a small bowel resection (removal of part of the intestine) and her diaphragm and pelvis scraped.

She then had Mitomycin C, a type of chemotherapy, blasted directly into her at 110 Fahrenheit for two hours, to kill any remaining cancer cells.

Faye modelled for many years (Image: Submitted) She was discharged on November 11 after 11 days in hospital and has spent a year recovering. The former model has had a phased return to her job as a flight dispatcher at Gatwick since March and has been back full time since October 9.

She said: “The recovery was brutal but I’m still here. I want to show people that you can go through something traumatic or life changing but you can rise up and come out the other side and have fun.

“One year ago I was in the operating theatre and this year I’m in a pub garden being gunged with orange gloop.”