Poland

STANDING in the queue at the supermarket, Hannah Davison feels a burning sensation in her neck.

While it might be alarming for some, the hairdresser is all too aware of what is causing her chronic pain.

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Her 36H breasts are the culprit with Hannah claiming she was ‘on the way to having a hunchback’ like the famous bellringer Quasimodo.

But Hannah, 33, can now hold her head (and neck) up high after having surgery to reduce her boobs by five cup sizes to a 34C.

She flew to Wroclaw, Poland, on April 14 to have breast reduction surgery where over a kilogram of tissue was removed from her chest.  

The two-hour long surgery cost £3,373 after Hannah received a discount for paying through her Monzo card.  

Now five cup sizes smaller, Hannah feels the hunch at the top of her neck caused by her boobs is “already going” and her daily pain has “disappeared literally overnight”.  

Hannah, who lives with her husband in Greater Manchester, says: “I felt like I was on my way to having a hunchback.

“It panicked me at first because it felt like there could be something really wrong.

“I’m a hairdresser so I’m on my feet all day and using my arms.

“I struggled to stand up for periods of time.

“I’d have a burning sensation in the top of my neck.

“I’d have to sit down for half an hour until it stopped.”

Hannah says that even simple tasks like eating proved a huge challenge.

“Even eating a meal before I was hunched because my boobs would mean my back was pushed down,” she explains.

“My posture was a huge problem.”

The hairdresser says that her life has totally transformed since her surgery, and she’s not the only one who has noticed the difference.

“Everyone has just been looking at them so shocked at how good they look and how it completely changed the frame of my body as well,” she says.

“I look smaller, they were so big and pronounced and changed the frame of body.

“Now they look a lot more natural as well and the pain has been severely reduced.

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“It’s a better quality of life and I’m a lot more comfy in my own skin, which I can say I’ve never had because I’ve had big boobs since I was 14.”

Hannah’s back pain began when she was just 21 when she began hairdressing.  

She said: “As the years have gone on – I’m 33 now – it’s just got progressively worse, and I had a hunch at the top of my back.  

“Standing up and moving my arms in a certain way gave me a burning pain in the back of my neck.”

Hannah first heard about the procedure after a friend flew abroad for a breast augmentation in March 2025 at Europe Surgery, a clinic in Wroclaw, Poland.  

She says: “My decision to go was very last minute.

“I’d wanted surgery done since I was 21 but it was always unreachable due to the price in the UK.  

Standing up and moving my arms in a certain way gave me a burning pain in the back of my neck

Hannah Davison

“I went to Mya Cosmetic Surgery about six years ago and got a quote for £8,000 for the same procedure. 

“It was way out of range for me.  

“The last thing I heard was that the wait list [on the NHS] was six years and you had to go through extreme mental health screening.  

“I didn’t want to wait any longer.

“I had the savings anyway but I didn’t want to dip into them, so I worked six days a week for six weeks to make the money I needed for my surgery.”

Hannah emailed the clinic in January 2025 and had her surgery just six weeks later.  

Common Causes of Saggy Boobs

Gravity: Over time, the constant pull of gravity can cause the ligaments in the boobs to stretch and sag, especially in larger ones

Smoking: Smoking reduces blood supply to the skin, leading to a loss of elasticity and premature sagging

Lack of Support: Not wearing a properly fitting bra, especially during exercise, can lead to stretching of breast tissue and ligaments

Weight gain and loss: Changes in body weight can spark changes to the fatty tissue in the breasts, making them more prone to sagging

She says: “The clinic has a Facebook page with over 17,000 members so you get to see loads of different people’s point of view.  

“I’m now four weeks post-op and I feel absolutely fine.  

“I started back at the gym two weeks post-op.  

“My best friend is a nurse and she can’t believe how neat the incisions look.”

Hannah stayed overnight at Europe Surgery’s clinic before staying a further five days at a hotel, while she waited to be fit to fly home to the UK.  

She says: “A few times I was worried I could feel fluid inside my breast, so I just went straight in.  

“All the nurses are so lovely.  

“The whole experience pain wise was a five out of 10.  

“The only annoyance of the whole process is the healing as you have to do nothing.  

“Other than that, it was a great experience.”

She estimates that “just over a kilo and a half” of breast tissue was removed in the surgery.  

She adds: “I’ve always been into the gym and training, and I feel like my body composition would never change.  

“No matter how much I trained it would never make a difference.  

“Now I can wear nice gym clothes.”

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Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Warsaw to show support for the opposing candidates in next weekend’s tightly contested Polish presidential run-off, which the government views as crucial to its efforts for pro-European democratic reform.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk hopes to galvanise support for his candidate, liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, to replace outgoing Andrzej Duda, a nationalist who has vetoed many of Tusk’s efforts to reform the judiciary.

“All of Poland is looking at us. All of Europe is looking at us. The whole world is looking at us,” Trzaskowski told supporters who waved Polish and European Union flags on Sunday.

Tusk swept to power in 2023 with a broad alliance of leftist and centrist parties on a promise to undo changes made by the nationalist Law and Justice government that the EU said had undermined democracy and women’s and minority rights.

Trzaskowski beat nationalist opponent Karol Nawrocki by 2 percentage points in the first round of the election on May 18 but is struggling to sustain his lead, according to opinion polls.

The two candidates are locked in a tight contest before the June 1 run-off with the latest polls projecting a tie of 47 percent of the vote each.

Nawrocki’s voters – some wearing hats with the words “Poland is the most important,” a nod to United States President Donald Trump’s America First policies – gathered in a different part of the capital to show support for his drive to align Poland more closely with Trump and the region’s populists.

“I am the voice of all those whose cries do not reach Donald Tusk today. The voice of all those who do not want Polish schools to be places of ideology, our Polish agriculture to be destroyed or our freedom taken away,” Nawrocki told the crowd.

Some of his supporters carried banners with slogans such as “Stop Migration Pact” and “This is Poland” or displayed images of Trump.

“He is the best candidate, the most patriotic, one who can guarantee that Poland is independent and sovereign,” Jan Sulanowski, 42, said.

An estimated 50,000 people attended the gathering of Nawrocki’s supporters while about 140,000 people participated in the march supporting Trzaskowski, the Polish Press Agency reported, citing unofficial preliminary estimates from city authorities.

Jakub Kaszycki, 21, joined the pro-Trzaskowski march, saying it could determine Poland’s future direction. “I very much favour … the West’s way to Europe, not to Russia,” he said.

At Trzaskowski’s march, newly elected Romanian President Nicusor Dan pledged to work closely with Tusk and Trzaskowski “to ensure Poland and the European Union remain strong”.

Dan’s unexpected victory in a vote on May 18 over a hard-right Trump supporter was greeted with relief in Brussels and other parts of Europe because many were concerned that his rival George Simion would have complicated EU efforts to tackle Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The ruling party’s pro-European Union candidate and a right-wing nationalist are set for a decisive second-round showdown on June 1.

Rafal Trzaskowski from Poland’s ruling centrist Civic Coalition (KO) is narrowly ahead of Karol Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, in the first round of the country’s presidential election.

It sets up a close battle to determine if the nation stays on a pro-European path or leans closer to admirers of United States President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, Trzaskowski, the liberal Warsaw Mayor, placed first with 30.8 percent of the vote, ahead of Nawrocki, a conservative historian, who had 29.1 percent, the Ipsos exit poll showed. If confirmed, the result would mean the two will go head-to-head in a run-off vote on June 1.

“We are going for victory. I said that it would be close, and it is close,” Trzaskowski told supporters. “There is a lot, a lot, of work ahead of us and we need determination.”

Nawrocki also told supporters he was confident of victory in the second round.

The campaign has largely revolved around foreign policy at a time of heightened security concerns in Poland, a key member of NATO and the European Union bordering war-torn Ukraine, and fears that the US’s commitment to European security could be wavering in the Trump era.

Commenting on X, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has forged a pro-European track, said the next two weeks will decide the future of Poland.

In Poland, the president has the power to veto laws. A Trzaskowski victory in the second round would enable Tusk’s government to implement an agenda that includes rolling back judicial reforms introduced by PiS that critics say undermined the independence of the courts.

However, if Nawrocki wins, the impasse that has existed since Tusk became prime minister in 2023 would be set to continue. Until now, PiS-ally President Andrzej Duda has stymied Tusk’s efforts.

If the exit poll is confirmed, other candidates in the first round – including Slawomir Mentzen from the far-right Confederation Party, Parliament Speaker Szymon Holownia of the centre-right Poland 2050, and Magdalena Biejat from the Left – will be eliminated.

Two updated polls that take into account partial official results will be published later Sunday evening and early on Monday morning

Trzaskowski has pledged to cement Poland’s role as a major player at the heart of Europe in contrast with PiS, which was frequently at odds with Brussels over rule-of-law concerns.

Social issues have also been a major theme on the campaign trail, with Nawrocki framing himself as a guardian of conservative values and Trzaskowski drawing support from liberal voters for his pledges to back abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Foreign policy under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, LGBTQ rights and abortion have been major issues on the campaign trail.

Voters in Poland are casting their ballots to elect the next president in what is expected to be a close contest between the liberal mayor of Warsaw and a conservative historian.

Polls opened at 7am (05:00 GMT) in Sunday’s election, and the results of exit polls are expected to be released after the polls close at 9pm (19:00 GMT). The final official results of the contest, in which 13 candidates are running, are expected on Monday.

The frontrunners are Rafal Trzaskowski, the pro-European mayor of the Polish capital, and Karol Nawrocki, a historian backed by the nationalist Law and Justice party, which lost power 18 months ago.

Neither is expected to reach the required 50 percent threshold for victory, making a run-off on June 1 likely.

The election is being closely watched for whether voters endorse the pro-European path set by Prime Minister Donald Tusk or favour a return to the nationalist vision of Law and Justice, which ran the country from 2015 to 2023.

Tusk was elected prime minister in December 2023 after defeating Law and Justice, which had engaged in repeated disputes with the European Union.

The Polish president has limited executive powers but is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, steers foreign policy and can veto legislation.

Security fears loom large

The campaign has largely revolved around foreign policy at a time of heightened security concerns in Poland, a key NATO and EU member bordering war-torn Ukraine, and fears that the United States’s commitment to European security could be wavering in the President Donald Trump era.

Trzaskowski, deputy leader of Tusk’s centre-right Civic Platform, has pledged to cement Poland’s role as a major player at the heart of Europe in contrast with Law and Justice, which was frequently at odds with Brussels over rule-of-law concerns.

“I would definitely strengthen relations with our partners … within NATO and the EU,” Trzaskowski told state broadcaster TVP Info on Friday.

Social issues have also been a major theme on the campaign trail with Nawrocki framing himself as a guardian of conservative values and Trzaskowski drawing support from liberal voters for his pledges to back abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Malgorzata Mikoszewska, a 41-year-old tourism agency employee, told the AFP news agency that she was a fan of Trzaskowski’s liberal stance on social issues.

“Above all, I hope for the liberalisation of the law on abortion and sexual minorities,” she said.

Apartment scandal

Nawrocki’s campaign received a boost when he met with Trump in the Oval Office of the White House this month.

But it then took a hit over allegations that he bought an apartment in Gdansk from an elderly man in return for a promise to provide lifelong care for the man, which was not delivered. Nawrocki denied the allegations.

Polish authorities have reported attempts at foreign interference during the campaign, including denial-of-service attacks targeting the websites of parties in Tusk’s ruling coalition and allegations by a state research institute that political advertisements on Facebook were funded from overseas.

“With Nawrocki as president, the government would be paralysed, and that could eventually lead to the fall of the ruling coalition,” political scientist Anna Materska-Sosnowska told AFP.

His victory could see “the return of the populists with renewed force” at the next general election, she said.

The new president will replace Andrzej Duda, who has served two terms and is ineligible to stand again.

The election result could reshape the direction of the pro-EU and NATO member nation bordering war-torn Ukraine.

Romanians have begun casting ballots in a tense presidential election run-off that pits a pro-Trump nationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine against a pro-European Union centrist.

Polls opened on Sunday at 7am local time (04:00 GMT) and will close at 9pm (18:00 GMT) in the high-stakes second round of the elections that will impact Romania’s geopolitical direction.

Hard-right nationalist George Simion, 38, who opposes military aid to neighbouring Ukraine and is critical of EU leadership, decisively swept the first round of the presidential election, triggering the collapse of a pro-Western coalition government. That led to significant capital outflows.

Romania’s top court annulled the first round results in December over accusations of Russian interference. The court also disqualified leading nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu, making way for Simion, who is a self-proclaimed fan of United States President Donald Trump.

Centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, 55, who has pledged to clamp down on corruption and is staunchly pro-EU and NATO, is competing against Simion. He has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security against a growing Russian threat.

An opinion poll on Friday suggested Dan is slightly ahead of Simion for the first time since the first round in a tight race that will depend on turnout and the sizeable Romanian diaspora.

‘Battle between nationalist populism and a centralist’

Reporting from the capital, Bucharest, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said this election is being pitched as a battle between nationalist populism and a centralist.

“The reality is that Romania, an EU and NATO member, shares a border with war-torn Ukraine, the longest among EU members. And that also makes it one of the most vulnerable within the bloc,” she said.

Some analysts have also warned that online disinformation has been rife again ahead of Sunday’s vote.

Elena Calistru, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera: “We have to look at what is happening online. And there we have seen a lot of misinformation.”

“We have seen a lot of … coordinated inauthentic behaviour. We have seen a lot of foreign interference in our elections,” she said.

‘Pro-European president’?

The president of the country has considerable powers, not least being in charge of the defence council that decides on military aid. He will also have oversight of foreign policy, with the power to veto EU votes that require unanimity.

Daniela Plesa, 62, a public employee, told the AFP news agency in Bucharest on Friday she wanted a president “to promote the interests of the country”, complaining that “the European Union demands and demands”.

Andreea Nicolescu, 30, working in advertising, said she wished for “things to calm down a bit” and “a pro-European president”.

Rallies of tens of thousands ahead of the elections have demanded that the country maintain its pro-EU stance.

Other protests, also drawing tens of thousands, have condemned the decision to annul last year’s vote and the subsequent barring of far-right candidate Georgescu.

The cancellation was criticised by the Trump administration, and Simion has said his prime minister pick would be Georgescu, who favours nationalisation and an openness towards Russia.

The vote in Romania comes on a day when Poland also votes in the first round of the presidential election, expected to be led by pro-EU Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.

Victory for Simion and/or Trzaskowski would expand a cohort of eurosceptic leaders that already includes prime ministers in Hungary and Slovakia amid a political shift in Central Europe that could widen rifts in the EU.