Jayne Hardman, 48, said her nose swelled after her adored dog CeCe jumped up and 'headbutted' her face in 2012.
When the swelling hadn't subsided after six months, doctors diagnosed Jayne with a rare and potentially deadly autoimmune disease.
Trying chemotherapy, they eventually had no option but to remove her crumbling nose and give her a prosthetic.
'I take it off every night before I go to bed and put a plaster over the hole,' she told The Sun.
'Overnight, I put the nose in an old wooden Twinings tea box in the bathroom along with the first few versions of the prosthetic before they got this one just right.'
Jayne, who appeared on transformation TV show, This Time Next Year, said doctors have now perfected her prosthetic, even matching it to her skin tone for summer and winter.
But she needs to be careful to hold onto her new nose when she sneezes.
'The first time I didn’t, we were having Sunday dinner at home and it shot off. It ended up between my son’s legs. My family are very relaxed about it — it’s a source of humour for them,' she said.
Revealing her struggling with autoimmune condition, Wegener’s granulomatosis, Jayne said her dog bumping her face actually saved her life by alerting her to the disease.
But the brave mum had to deal with cruel comments from strangers before her prosthetic was properly fitted.
'I’d have strangers stare at me and say, ‘Oh my God, have you been in a car crash?’
'Others asked, ‘Has your husband done that to you?’ That was the cruellest thing, because I couldn’t have wished for a better husband.'
While Jayne said losing her nose was the worst day of her life, she now has the confidence to face the world again.
'After everything I’ve been through, you have to laugh at these things,' she said.
'We’ve even joked about me having a witch’s nose for Halloween and a carrot nose at Christmas.'
