Katie is risking her life because she values male attention/validation more than anything else in her life. If anyone has read her first book, they'll know that in her heyday as a glamour model (her early 20s) she was spoilt for choice and had her pick of high status men (and she ALWAYS had a backup plan/guy if one relationship didn't work out). Teddy Sheringham and Ralf Schumacher were just a couple of the men that were interested in dating her. She obviously misses being sought after by these types of men and that's why she is trying in vain to look how she did at 21 through cosmetic surgery. Her options have dwindled to nothing, and she secretly resents having to settle for guys like Kieran and Kris, so hopes improving her looks will make her hot property again. The irony is, she has made herself look older and less attractive than ever, and it wasn't her looks that caused the breakdown of many of those past relationships to begin with; it was her behaviour.