Letter from Arabella Churchill
Dear Celebrity Doctor Organization,
I saw the piece about your organization in the Sunday Mirror on
11 April, and have logged into your web page and am now on your
subscription list.
I am coming up to my 50th birthday in October and have been thinking about treating myself to a facelift as a birthday present. However I would really want a good one, and I really don't think I can afford it. I would like you to consider me as a possibility for one of your free facelifts. I am not a film or television star, but I suppose I am some sort of celebrity. I am the daughter of Randolph Churchill and the granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill.
When I was younger I was Deb of the Year (in 1969) and was considered quite a beauty - I was photographed by Patrick Lichfield, Norman Parkinson and many others for pieces in Queen and Vogue and was often featured in the press.
I "dropped out" in 1971 and became involved in the Glastonbury Festival. I now live in Somerset and am Director of the Children's Charity which I founded in 1981, which takes drama participation, creative play and integrational opportunities to special schools for children who have learning difficulties in the West Country. It is an extremely satisfying job and I love it, but it is not well paid, and nor is my other job which is organizing the Theater and Circus Fields at the Festival of Contemporary Arts which takes place each year in June (this is Europe's biggest pop festival but much, much more, offering fantastic facilities for children, "Green" fields and a host of other wonderful events - I stage more than 1,000 shows over the 3 days each year) as well as all the music.)
I am still a bit of a local celebrity down here in the West Country, with local and regional papers and TV featuring me occasionally about my two fascinating jobs. And it appears that occasionally there is still national interest. I was recently involved in a shipwreck in Hawaii (where we were staying with friends at a Beach Park for the Hawaiian Juggling Convention - my husband Haggis is one of Britain's best jugglers and teaches at Bristol's School). Several of us had gone out in an outrigger canoe on the last night to try to catch a last glimpse of the many whales, when a huge wind came up and blew us out to sea. The waves got bigger, the canoe went down and we were in the Pacific Ocean for 11 hours clinging to wreckage overnight until the American Navy rescued us. It was terrifying at the time, but I have to say that in retrospect it was a very positive experience - life now feels very precious, and I waste far less time on negative emotions. Anyway our local paper down here pushed me into writing a bit about the shipwreck in their publication, which I did, and to our amazement not only did the Standard pick it up and do a small bit about it, but the Daily Mail did a whole page piece with photo (albeit 10 years old) and everything - very over-the-top actually - "My shipwreck nightmare in shark-infested waters" by Sir Winston Churchill's granddaughter Arabella, sort of thing!
I suppose what I am saying is that there is still quite a lot of interest in me because of my name, and that I might well suite your purpose for a free facelift.
Basically I still have the same good bone structure and am intrinsically still quite attractive. But I am quite overweight (I have been about 14 stone for the past few years, though I am healthy and carry it well) and generally my face has dropped a bit. I am a bit baggy under the eyes, my chin is pretty double-chinny and I could benefit from a nip and a tuck and a lift and I don't know what else. I know a lot of my friends and other people see facelifts as wrong and vain, etc., but I can see no harm in them. It's no big thing, just a little help to make you look more like you used to. I would want a really good one if I was going to undergo surgery, as I dread the idea of it going wrong or looking plastic or unreal. My brother's late mother Pamela Harriman (my father's first wife, who then married Leyland Hayward and then Averill Harriman) had what I have heard many people describe as "the best and most expensive facelift ever", and I have to say she looked absolutely wonderful for her age, better in many ways that when she was young. I haven't even dared ask the price of facelifts, though I assume that good ones with really excellent surgeons are horrendously expensive and I doubt that I could afford one. So, if you were interested, we might be able to help each other.
If you email me your postal address I could send you some past and more recent photos, if you would be interested in considering me as a possible candidate for a free facelift. I am frantically busy until August because of the upcoming Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts in June and the Glastonbury Children's Festival which is run by Children's World at the end of July, so could not possibly undergo surgery until then - but things are much calmer then and I could probably find the time - how long does it take for all the bruising to go down and for one to look presentable again?
If you would like to talk to me, my telephone number is ... I may not be at all what you are looking for, but I would be grateful for a reply of some sort fairly soon. With best wishes,
Arabella Churchill