But now Princess Goodwin, 51, of Jewel Walk, Bewbush, says she feels better than ever.

"I feel brilliant, absolutely brilliant," said the scarred ex-model, who has just two more operations to go until surgeons at the Queen Victoria hospital in East Grinstead declare her finished.

She added: "I just feel great, it doesn't worry me. I'm confident and nothing's really changed for me. When I look in the mirror I'm more than happy."

Recalling the moment when she awoke to find that greyhound Ali, who'd been sleeping on her bed, had launched the frenzied attack, she said: "It was quite confusing because I didn't know what had happened.

"It was only when I realised the dog had bitten me I thought this isn't good, this is bad.

"My first instinct was 'Hell, it's bad, what is anyone going to do with that?' – there wasn't anything to do anything with."
But the brave mum used her experience to help others when she went on daytime TV show Jeremy Kyle.

She used the opportunity to share her story and give others support and pledged that she'd continue to do the same now.

She said: "I'm about to do another TV appearance on BBC South East and I'm doing a story for The Sun.

"If I'm walking around town and I see someone with nasty cuts to the face and they might be looking a bit down and fed up, I'll go up and speak to them and say 'Hi hun, it's not the end of the world' and I'll talk to them and they'll go off with a bit of a smile."

Thanking staff at the hospital, she said: "The hospital supported me constantly all the way through, I've never had a bad moment.

"They say it's me because I'm really strong but I say it's them because they helped me all the way."

Ali was put to sleep after the attack, but Princess is still the owner of nine-year-old lurcher Bumpi.

And Princess plans to celebrate her recovery. She said: "I'll probably go out and have a couple of glasses of wine with the girls because I feel great, it looks so good now."