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How poaching an egg left this Bolton woman with severe facial burns

"I'll never have an egg again because I'm so traumatised."

Emily Sergeant - 13th July 2021

A Bolton mum is said to have been left “traumatised” after a microwave poaching hack backfired and she’s vowed never to eat an egg again.

25-year-old Chantelle Conway was left with horrific facial burns after her attempt to poach an egg in the microwave went wrong and left screaming in agony.

Using the same tried-and-tested method she’s “always” done to poach eggs, Chantelle boiled the kettle and filled a cup before cracking a raw egg into the water and putting it in the microwave for ten seconds – but when she then put a cold spoon into the boiling water to remove the poached egg, the reaction sent the piping hot water shooting straight into her face as she stood over the cup.

Chantelle claims that she has been poaching eggs in the microwave for the last two years before it went wrong earlier this month.

She was so rocked by the incident that she was convinced she’d “burnt her face off”.

“I’ve always done poached eggs that way because it was just a quicker and easier way of doing them,” said Chantelle, from Farnworth in Bolton.

“When I took it out of the microwave, I put a metal spoon in to turn the egg and check if it was cooked but as soon as the spoon touched the water it shot out.

“It wasn’t the egg that blew up [as] that landed on my kitchen side, it was the water that went everywhere – all over my face and neck and I’m sure it even hit the ceiling because there’s a mark above where I was standing.

“It was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

Describing the pain as feeling like “someone had a blowtorch on my face constantly”, Chantelle said she was “really lucky” that she managed to shut her eyes in time and wasn’t blinded, but admits that here eyelids were “badly burnt”.

Chantelle was at home with her 18-month-old daughter and was on FaceTime with her cousin Stephanie at the time of the horrific accident, who listened in horror to Chantelle’s screams as the water scalded her face.

Relaying the traumatic incident, Stephanie said: “We FaceTime every day and she puts the phone on the tea and sugar pots while she makes a brew [but] all of a sudden I saw lots of stuff flying up in the air and she was screaming and couldn’t even talk to tell me what had happened so I thought the kettle had blown up in her face.

“I was in Manchester at the time [so I was] too far away to nip round.

“I just felt helpless and was panicking trying to call someone nearby to go help her.”

After her partner Mark came home to take her to A&E at Royal Bolton Hospital, Chantelle revealed that hospital staff said her quick reaction of continuously pouring cold water over her face meant she was very lucky to have not sustained third-degree burns.

Following the life-changing incident, Chantelle has shared photos of her excruciating facial burns to warn others against the ‘hack’ – which she has seen people doing on TikTok – and also shared her burn recovery experience to raise awareness and warn others on the social media platform.

“I do take full responsibility for what happened,” Chantelle admits.

“It was silly of me to do it and I just want more people to know what can happen so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“I’ll never have an egg again because I’m so traumatised.”

Featured Image – Kennedy News and Media