I aged 50years in under a year!

I had always been heavy, even as a schoolgirl and as puberty hit the problem just became worse. Even though I hated being fat, food gave me temporary comfort and I couldn’t break the cycle.

I was 21 stone at my heaviest and, along with my size, came health issues – asthma, hiatus hernia and an under active thyroid….

Luckily my GP helped me seek help and I was offered a gastric bypass. I weighed up the pros and cons for some time, and was even assured that, post operatively, skin removal surgery would be available to me.

I was under no illusion that the sagging skin would be a big problem due to the speed of weight loss , but with the offer of skin removal sorted, I decided to go ahead with the bypass surgery.

My weight dropped to 10 stone 4 in just 10 months! It was the most surreal experience, seeing this excess baggage I had carried for so long just disappear – amazing. My breathing and exercise tolerance improved almost overnight and I felt great for the first time in a very long while.

The excess skin was revolting however and it made me FEEL revolting – even though my partner tried to re-assure me! Instead of a now healthy 43 yr old, without clothes I looked 90!

Due to budget cuts my primary trust refused me the promised skin removal surgery – devastated doesn’t do how I felt justice – I felt half finished and became desperate.

The thought of baring all on TV was incredibly daunting, but I applied for a number of reasons. I wanted obese people planning weight loss surgery to be aware of the drastic skin sagging they have to face. I was also desperate for the surgical body lift – and my supportive family made the decision easier.

I’m not stupid, I know my body will never be perfect and I didn’t really want that anyway – all I wanted was to be able to wear a swim suit on holiday, and feel good about it!

I underwent an arm lift, tummy tuck and breast uplift with Angelica Kavouni. Angelica felt I was a good candidate for the combination surgery and to be honest, it has transformed my life!

The scars have healed so well you can hardly see them. On the spa trip we took once everything had healed I pranced around like a peacock! And the dip in the pool was the first one I’d taken in 15 years!

Do I regret my gastric bypass? Absolutely not. But trusts offering weight loss surgery really need to think long and hard about the complete patient and must offer skin removal post operatively.