On a crisp September morning in 2024, Alice Webb, a devoted mother of five, set off from her home in Wotton-under-Edge, England. She dropped her daughters at school, music blaring from her car, and texted her sister April throughout the day. She had booked herself in for a non-surgical Brazilian butt lift (BBL) at Studio 23 clinic in Gloucester, run by the self-styled “Lip King,” Jordan James Parke. Alice, just 33, believed she’d be home in time for the afternoon school run. But mere hours later, her family was called to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, where they were told Alice was unresponsive. Within an hour, she was gone—the first known UK fatality from a 'liquid BBL.'
According to reporting by BBC and the Daily Mail, Alice’s death sent shockwaves through her family and the wider community, exposing the dangers lurking in the booming, loosely regulated world of cosmetic enhancements. The non-surgical BBL Alice underwent involved injecting dermal fillers—substances typically used for lips—directly into the buttocks, a cheaper but riskier alternative to the surgical version, which uses fat transfer.
Jordan Parke, the high-profile practitioner behind the procedure, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter along with a second suspect. Parke remains on police bail with conditions, but has not been charged, and no further action has been taken against the other suspect. Gloucestershire Police described Alice’s death as “the first death of this kind in the United Kingdom,” underscoring the complex investigation now underway. “We understand and appreciate that Alice's family want answers and we are actively investigating her death and working with medical specialists in order to determine what happened in order to provide those answers,” a spokesperson told BBC.
For Alice’s family, the pain of her sudden loss is compounded by outrage at Parke’s ongoing activities. Despite the tragedy and his ongoing bail, Parke has continued to operate in the cosmetics industry—illegally selling prescription-only weight-loss jabs online, as uncovered by both BBC and the Daily Mail. The family, speaking out for the first time since Alice’s death, described themselves as “incredibly angry.” Ben, father of Alice’s eldest daughter Delsie, put it bluntly: “He shouldn’t be [selling them]. It’s as simple as that. I don’t know how he sleeps at night.”
Parke, who bills himself as “The Plastic Surgery Advocate” and once appeared on US reality TV show Botched, has been offering weight-loss kits for £200 through social media, even boasting of his lavish lifestyle in Cape Verde. In one exchange, Parke described his semaglutide peptide kits—containing the same active ingredient as the diabetes drug Ozempic—as “incredible,” promising, “It’s amazing, it cuts your appetite right down which then causes you to lose weight! Most people on average lost 5-7lbs a week on this.” He provided instructions for self-injection, with no questions asked about the customer’s medical history.
But the reality behind these jabs is far from glamorous. Semaglutide is a prescription-only medication, strictly regulated due to its powerful effects and potential side effects. When prescribed by a qualified professional, it is used to help manage diabetes or obesity in patients with specific health conditions. Yet, as BBC revealed, Parke’s kits arrived in unlabelled envelopes, containing vials of white powder, needles, and mixing agents—without any official instructions or safeguards. Laboratory testing confirmed the substance was semaglutide, but the lack of quality control and medical oversight was alarming.
Dr. Sophie Shooter, an experienced aesthetic doctor, called the situation “shocking.” She explained, “You could give yourself more or less than intended and that is fraught with danger,” warning that improper use of semaglutide can cause serious, even life-threatening, conditions such as thyroid problems and pancreatitis. She added, “The fact that Jordan Parke is able to do this is an embarrassment. We're the laughing stock of the rest of the world, because I don't know a single other country where this would be allowed to happen.”
The risks aren’t theoretical. In 2023, a woman named Maddy told BBC she ended up in A&E vomiting blood after using weight-loss jabs purchased from Parke. “I was throwing up all night, to the point where I was throwing up stomach acid, blood, white foam,” she recalled. Learning that Parke was still selling these drugs gave her “goosebumps.”
Ashton Collins, director of the government-approved Save Face register of accredited practitioners, has tracked Parke’s activities for years. “Jordan Parke has been on our radar for nearly a decade due to his pattern of unethical practices. He is morally bankrupt, consistently prioritising profit over patient safety,” Collins told the Daily Mail. “Having previously been exposed for causing serious health issues, he continues these dangerous activities without any legal authority to prescribe. He sells indiscriminately, without assessing suitability or reviewing medical histories, thereby putting both the physical and mental health of his customers at grave risk.”
Parke is not a qualified surgeon, nor does he have any medical credentials to prescribe or administer prescription drugs. Yet, the lack of robust regulation has allowed him and others like him to operate with relative impunity. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is tasked with investigating unlicensed sales, but as of October 2025, police say selling weight-loss jabs without a prescription does not breach Parke’s bail conditions.
Driven by grief and a desire to prevent further tragedy, Alice’s family has joined forces with the Save Face charity to campaign for a ban on liquid BBLs in high-street beauty clinics. They are also advocating for “Alice’s Law,” a proposed measure to ensure only qualified surgeons can perform high-risk cosmetic procedures, and that clinics meet strict licensing standards for fillers and Botox. In August 2025, the UK government announced plans to tighten regulations, but no clear implementation date has been set. For now, oversight falls to local authorities, who admit they lack the powers and resources to effectively police the industry.
The scale of the problem is daunting. Since 2022, more than 1,800 complaints about cosmetic practitioners have been lodged with councils, resulting in 799 investigations and 85 shutdowns. Yet, with 156 councils reporting multiple complaints but no inspections, enforcement remains patchy at best. Victor Ktorakis of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health warned, “My fear is we're going to get to a point where there are so many premises and practitioners operating, that it is going to be very, very difficult to manage it from a public safety point of view—which is why we need something in place as soon as possible.”
For Alice’s family, every milestone is shadowed by her absence: the day one daughter learned to ride a bike, or the excitement of buying a prom dress. Rachael, Alice’s mother, now preserves funeral blooms as wreaths for friends and family, small tokens marking a year since the loss. “She was special to a lot of people,” Rachael told BBC. As the investigation continues and the campaign for reform gathers pace, the hope is that Alice’s story will not be repeated—and that the safety of vulnerable clients will finally take precedence over profit and social media fame.
