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Woman left an hour from death after being poisoned - by her hair dye

A young woman was left just an hour from death after she was poisoned – by her hair dye.

Gemma Williams suffered a bad reaction when she tried to dye her hair black, but the 24-year-old also went on to suffer septicaemia and was told by doctors that she would have been killed by the poison in her blood.

The make-up and beauty artist has now vowed never to touch hair dye again, and has warned of the dangers.

Gemma, who has naturally mousy brown hair, put the hair dye on in January but within 24 hours had suffered a severe reaction, including burnt, bubbly skin, burns around her ears and her eyes were almost glued shut.

Describing herself as “looking like bubble woman”, she said: “I had swelling in my ears and puss coming out of the burns on my skin – and even my eyes were stuck together.”

A woman has told how she was left an hour from death after she was poisoned - by her hair dye
Burns – Gemma suffered a serious reaction to the dye (Pictures: SWNS)

Gemma, of Droylsden, Greater Manchester, went to Manchester Royal Infirmary and was given steroids and antibiotics to treat the inflammation and rashes but a week later they hadn’t helped and re-visited the hospital to find out the dye had seeped into her blood and she was being poisoned.

She was told by doctors that if she hadn’t come back to hospital she would have died due to the poison in her system.

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Gemma, who was hospitalised for two weeks, has vowed never to touch hair dye again – and is urging others to do patch tests before donning the dye.

“Everyone just puts hair dye on their head without actually reading the instructions – but it’s scary.”

A woman has told how she was left an hour from death after she was poisoned - by her hair dye
Poisoned – the dye got into Gemma’s bloodstream and was poisoning her

She added: “It’s scary because when you put hair dye on, you don’t realise that it’s going to go into your body and like me, almost kill you.

“I say always do a patch test – it could save your life.”