Amanda Ryan, from Preston, was just 16 when she decided she wanted her breasts enlarged because she was jealous of school pals with bigger breasts.

She underwent the operation at the Beardwood Hospital in Blackburn in April last year after a counsellor, who she went to see after starting to feel "moody" and losing her temper with her family, said all she needed was her mother's signature.

She told a national newspaper she wishes she had never had the operation after having "one problem after another".

But when the Evening Post spoke with the girl at her boyfriend's home in Thornton, she said she did not wish to discuss the matter any further.

She said: "It was funded on the NHS but, as anyone who works in the NHS knows, you have got to have a very, very good reason and there are different funds for everything.

"Some people have just compared it to cancer (drugs), which I think is just not fair because there are different funds for that."

Miss Ryan also said she wanted to let the story "blow over", adding that she has had numerous offers, including £1,000 from one magazine, to elaborate on her story, but had turned them all down.

A well-known morning TV show was also interested in her story, she said.

She was particularly upset at a comment from political watchdog the Taxpayers' Alliance, which said: "The NHS is struggling to provide life-saving surgery.Cancer drugs should always come above boob jobs."

Today Mark Wallace, for the group, said: "We absolutely stand by our comments. The fact is, the NHS does not have a bottomless pit of money and, particularly in a recession, they should prioritise."

Amanda has said her mother was not happy about her having the initial operation, but knew that she would have it done privately anyway when she turned 18.

She says she is now looking at private treatment to correct the "problems" she says she has had since the operation.

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