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HOBBLING around the dancefloor on her wedding day, Jennifer Bailey was mortified as her painful bunions hung over the sides of her flip-flops.
Her feet were so disfigured by the bony bumps near her big toes that the 31-year-old often hid them away in embarrassment.
But after spending most of her big day in heels embellished with faux crystals, she had to switch to the comfier option.
Jennifer, 45, who married Gary, 44, in Italy in 2010, says: “My bunions were so painful. As soon as the dancing started I took off my shoes and wore my sister’s flip-flops that she’d brought.
“It wasn’t how I wanted to look. But most of the shoe options for people with bunions are something you’d only wear in a care home.”
Twenty-two per cent of women in their forties and 36 per cent in their fifties suffer with bunions.
Of the 15million of us living with them, two-thirds are women.
Celebs inflicted with bunions include Victoria Beckham, 49, Amal Clooney, 46, and Naomi Campbell, 53.
Although Jennifer’s first started to show in her teens, being a slave to fashion in her twenties made them far worse.
The trend for stilettos, platforms and strappy heels in the Eighties and Nineties helps to explain why so many women born in the Seventies now face issues.
“I’ve suffered with bunions since I was a teen,” says Jennifer, from Merseyside. “I realised I was different when a classmate pointed out my ‘weird little lumps’.
“I wore heels in my twenties — I’m a Nineties girl so it was part of the uniform — but it’s because I had no idea what bunions were or what could make them worse. I don’t think I was really aware until my late twenties. I began to feel as though people were looking at my feet, so I didn’t wear open shoes.”
Jennifer, who is mum to Charlotte, 11, and Emily, nine, adds: “They got progressively worse over time, and really bad during pregnancy — apparently, this is due to your ligaments loosening.”
Bunions have existed for centuries — partly caused by pointy, tight or high-heeled shoes, which date to the 1400s.
But it was in the Eighties and Nineties that skyscraper heels took off — think Sex And The City’s Carrie Bradshaw and her Manolo Blahniks, or Posh Spice and stiletto mules and strappy sandals.
Orthopaedic surgeon at The Private Clinic Dr Andrea Bianchi says: “Bunions can develop and get worse from wearing ill-fitting footwear as they pressure toes — forcing the first and fifth toward the centre, thus compressing the others. This compression increases when wearing high heels as your weight shifts toward the front of your foot.”
I only realised I was different when a classmate pointed out my ‘weird little lumps’
Jennifer
There has been a surge in TikTok and Instagram videos showing mangled feet, with hashtags such as #BunionTok and #BunionSurgery.
And Dr Bianchi says: “I am seeing more people than ever.”
Jennifer’s lumps were confirmed as bunions by a podiatrist in 2017, who said it was due to how she walked.
They said if she had been diagnosed earlier they may not have progressed so quickly.
Jennifer says: “I learned that my feet pronate — meaning they roll in because my arch collapses. I’ve already started to see signs in Charlotte’s feet and small ones on Emily’s, likely through genetics.”
But Jennifer now knows how important the right footwear is and will ensure her children know this.
Meanwhile 62-year-old Sue Leigh has had bunions since her mid-twenties but because it was such a taboo subject she suffered in silence for decades.
The gran, who lives in Stoke with partner Gary, 57, a call centre worker, even had to quit work at the age of 51 due to the daily pain.
She says: “It started when I was 26. I loved dainty shoes but it became awkward to find ones to fit me and I realised my feet had become misshapen.”
Sue, mum to Charlotte, 35, Emily, 26, and Molly, 24, adds: “My children used to joke my feet looked like ‘trotters’, until they realised the pain I was in.
“As the years went by, it got worse. I was in agony walking. I felt like I was in my eighties. I felt frumpy, too, as I could only wear trainers. I would have a nice outfit on and you would look at my feet and think, ‘Oh dear’.”
Eventually, in 2013, Sue had to give up her job.
I was in agony . . . eventually it got too much and I had to give my job up
Sue
She says: “I have a high pain threshold so just tried to put up with it. But I worked as a security officer and, as I did a lot of walking, was in agony. It could be anything from a numb sensation to an intense, hot pain across my toes and forefoot. My ankles and legs would swell, too, and my knees were painful. Eventually it got too much and I had to give my job up.”
Sue then had a metal rod put in her right foot to keep her big toe straight, but after three years the foot had deteriorated and her other one had also got worse.
For seven years, she struggled but her patience ran out last year when daughter Emily said she was getting married.
Desperate to feel great on the day, Sue applied to be on TV’s The Bad Foot Clinic, on Discovery+.
After the show’s podiatrist Marion Yau said Sue’s bunions were some of the worst she had seen, she had a three-hour op to remove the disfigurement on her left foot.
Sue says: “Because I’d already had an op on my right foot, they wanted to focus on my left.
"The surgery went well. I stayed overnight and felt fantastic and pain-free afterwards. I’ve now got a metal plate in my big toe and a rod in the next toe, and am so glad I’ve had it done.”
Last month, Sue, who takes a shoe size seven to eight, attended the wedding in wide-fit ankle boots, costing £45 from Next.
“It felt wonderful to be able to buy something trendy that went with my actual outfit,” she says.
Podiatrist Marion says most clients at her London clinic who have corrective surgery are in their thirties, forties and fifties, with ill-fitting shoes a huge factor.
But she says that while bad shoes will not have helped Sue, the bunions were likely caused by a hypermobility issue.
For milder bunions, taking painkillers such as ibuprofen, icing and wearing bunion pads may relieve pain.
Marion also recommends putting an elastic band between the toes and stretching it out to exercise the bunion.
And wide-fitting shoes with a low heel can help.
For Jennifer, corrective surgery is not the answer as she worries about losing mobility during recovery.
Instead, she has given up a career in marketing to launch bunion-friendly footwear brand , which now has Tamzin Outhwaite, 53, and Prue Leith, 84, among its customers.
Jennifer says: “To advertise in the beginning, I had no choice but to post photos of my feet on social media, which was mortifying. But it’s more authentic — and we went viral in 2020.”
Trolls have told Jennifer her feet are disgusting, that they look like baseball gloves and that she should amputate them.
Others with a fetish love her feet and want private photos.
But most comments are from women who are just thankful.
Jennifer adds: “My bunions don’t bother me now because I’ve got the right shoes, thanks to my brand.
“No surgery is simple and there is recovery time involved. I have young children and need to be on my feet.
“Maybe I’ll consider it when I’m 80.”
