A woman whose breast implants ruptured is calling for tighter controls over the companies producing them.

Mother-of-two Catherine Kydd, 39, who owns beauty salon Pure Serenity, in Birchwood Road, Dartford, had surgery in 2004 because of a lack of self-confidence.

But in September 2009 found a lump in her breast and was told her implant had burst.

She had been given implants that have since been banned because they were found to contain industrial – not medical – silicone.

Mrs Kydd said: “They need to change the law so this doesn’t happen again.

“I did research into the possibility of getting cancer after a boob job because of my family history.

“But I realised that many people who have had cancer have surgery afterwards, so I decided to go ahead with it.”

She paid £4,000 to go to a private London clinic for the operation. She was shown a breast implant and told that it “couldn’t possibly leak”.

But six months later Mrs Kydd had pain in her left breast and pins and needles down her left arm.

She told her surgeon, who assured her there was nothing to worry about.

Then, in September 2009, Mrs Kydd found a lump in her left breast.

She went to her GP who immediately referred her to Darent Valley Hospital for a mammogram and ultrasound.

She said: “The radiographer told me 'you have a ruptured implant and it has spread to your left armpit’.”

This then started a battle with the clinic and Mrs Kydd, who was one month outside of her five-year guarantee.

She said: “They wanted £6,500 to put it right but I fought it because they had used a substandard product.”

Almost a year later, the clinic agreed to give her the operation to replace the faulty implants but Mrs Kydd is still frightened of the consequences of the ruptured Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) implant.

The implants by the French firm were banned in 2010 after they were found to contain industrial silicone instead of medical silicone.

“I still have silicone in my left nymph node,” she said. “I get a burning pain there and I don’t know what the long-term side effects may be."

Mrs Kydd believes there should be tighter controls on companies producing prostheses and that there should be regular follow-up checks on what they are producing.

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