A woman has been left scarred for left and has had to undergo a number of operations after accidentally splashing over cleaner on her face. Maura Prendergast, 45, used Oven Pride to deep clean her cooker.
She left the wire racks in the cleaning liquid overnight and the next day pulled open the bag to finish cleaning Mum-of-six Maura told the Mirror : "I came home from work and thought I need to get the kids' dinner on, so got the bag and put it in the sink and just opened it as normal."
A tiny dot of the cleaning liquid hit her face, which began to itch. She grabbed a tea towel and wiped the liquid down, spreading it down her cheek.
Maura's daughter was shocked at the black on her face (Image: Maura Prendergast)
Maura said: "It was really itchy but I carried on cleaning the oven and then my 18-year-old daughter came home and said 'Oh my God mam, your face is all black'. I went into the bathroom and looked at my face and just started to throw water at myself."
Maura, who was a volunteer first responder, said she didn't panic but tried to start rinsing her face.
Maura has needed 10 surgeries over the last three and a half years (Image: Maura Prendergast)
She ended up in A&E, where she was given antibiotics and saline to keep applying to her face. Maura was sent to the plastics team at and was rushed into the operating theatre.
Surgeons said her face was still burning, and cut away a piece of her cheek to stop the burn from spreading further.
Maura had to wear the vac pack 24 hours a day (Image: Maura Prendergast)
The accident happened just over three years ago and Maura has had to have surgery 10 times - with skin grafts and an operation to cut fat cut away from her stomach to be used to fill the hole in her face.
Following one procedure, medics attached a pack to her face for 10 weeks to drain the wound. At one point during her treatment she came close to dying and she told her family to "just take her home to die".
She said: "When I had the vac pack I just wouldn't leave the house. I didn't want people to see me and stare at me. I've always felt like I'm ugly anyway."
During her treatment Maura decided to get five stars tattooed close to her right eye on the same side of her face as her scar.
She originally had piercings there but due to the surgeries they would get rejected, so the tattoo was her way of taking back control.
"My surgeon loves my tattoo, and since I've had the tattoo done nobody notices my scar, they talk to me about my tattoo instead.
"After going through all this, I feel like I've been given a second chance at life now. I feel like I'm finally happy, I'm engaged to a man I've known all my life, I've got six beautiful children, my mum and dad are good, I work in an amazing hotel and have great friends."
Oven Pride is a single-use, all-in-one oven cleaner and contains a bag, a 500ml bottle of Oven Pride Deep Cleaner, one set of gloves and an instruction leaflet.
Oven Pride tells consumers to wear gloves and ensure arms and wrists are covered at all times when using the product and recommends people wear long rubber gloves. Maura said: "Oven Pride is still on sale, and it says on the box to wear gloves and a mask and they give you gloves in the box, so why not put a mask in too.
"This was before Covid so people didn't have masks then, now we all have them, so there's no excuse. It shouldn't have been able to happen to me and if there had been a mask in the box it wouldn't.
"I just want to warn others to protect themselves so they don't have this happen to them."
The Mirror contacted Oven Pride and its parent company McBride. They declined opportunities to comment.
