COCAINE DESTROYED MY NOSE, ADMITS 'EASTENDERS' STAR

Danniella Westbrook, a former EastEnders star, said yesterday that she
hopes her disfigurement - partly through the use of cocaine - helps young
people to think twice about drugs.

The actress has lost the septum of her nose, the flesh and cartilage
between her nostrils, and is now in a clinic to treat her drug abuse.
However, the star, who played Sam Mitchell, said a high-speed car crash two
years ago with her boyfriend at the time, Robert Fernandez, contributed to
the state of her nose.

The huge gap between Westbrook's nostrils can be seen clearly in disturbing
newspapers photographs in which she defiantly sticks out her tongue at a
photographer.

Westbrook, 26, said: "If these photos make young people think, then their
publication has my support. But remember, I smashed my face when I went
through a windscreen at 85 miles per hour. I am in rehab now."

She said her family had pleaded with newspapers not to print the
photographs "until I was stronger, knowing it would hit me at my lowest
point and could impede my recovery.

"Would these warnings have been less strong in a few weeks' time? Do they
really care? No, the need to sell papers comes first," she said.

The use of cocaine means the blood vessels in the nose constrict, cutting
the supply of oxygen, which causes the tissue to die. Many addicts who have
had similar experiences have needed surgery to rebuild their faces.

Westbrook joined the BBC soap opera EastEnders a decade ago and soon began
to establish a reputation as a wild child. Her cocaine habit came to be
well chronicled and she once admitted spending Pounds 100,000 on the drug
in a year.