A former sailor has “rejoined the human race” after a life-changing operation to fix his nose.
Ian Arthur, 63, suffered rhinophyma, a condition which caused his nose to enlarge and become red, bumpy and bulbous.
The condition turned him into a recluse because he was too embarrassed to go out.
After leaving the Navy Ian became a photographer but he let his business run down because “I started to feel like a freak”.
He added: “During Covid, I began to withdraw from society and, when it ended, I just couldn’t face meeting people. I wound down my business, because I felt clients were just staring at my nose.
“I even began shopping late in the evening, when there were fewer people about.”
Ian continued: “In my isolation, I called my nose John, after John Merrick in The Elephant Man.
“Now it has gone, a huge weight has been lifted from me.”
His treatment completed, dad-of-four Ian, from Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, said: “I smile every day. When I wake up, I wake up happy. I have rejoined the human race.”
The operation, using the only surgical-grade lasers in Scotland, reduced Ian’s nose to normal size.
He first went to his GP eight years ago with the condition and was prescribed medicine but it didn’t work.
A year ago, he was referred to an NHS dermatology clinic but he is still waiting for the appointment.
He admitted: “I thought about going to Turkey, on cost grounds, but I thought that with my luck I would probably get a dodgy doctor and my nose would fall off on the way home.
Eventually, he found the Ever Clinic in Glasgow and in just two and a half hours, Dr Cormac Convery changed his life.
Using a CO2 laser, he removed excess skin tissue from Ian’s nose in what the patient described as “like stripping layers of wallpaper”.
With his new-found freedom, Ian now intends to embark on some remarkable and challenging motorcycle odysseys, the first in October to Morocco, Mauretania, Senegal and into war-torn Mali.
In 2025/26, he plans to sell everything he owns, ship his motorcycle to North America, and just keep riding through the continent to South America, then over to Australasia.
He laughed: “I’m just going to follow my nose.”
