‘I spent house fund on weight-loss op’ MUM’S
£12K LIFE-SAVING SURGERY
A GRIEVING mum spent her house deposit on a gastric sleeve operation after she hit 27 stone.
Mum-of-two Amanda Smith, 49, started comfort eating after her daughter Paris died of a sudden heart attack aged just 21.
Her weight gain became so extreme she wore a size 34 and ended up housebound.
Amanda also suffered up to 40 asthma attacks a day and feared she might only have a few months to live.
She said: “I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave my bed in a year and within two years I’d be dead.
“I still had one daughter, Savannah, and I didn’t want her to lose me too.”
In desperation, she spent £11,900 on weight-loss surgery at a private clinic.
Now Amanda, an insurance advisor from Belper in Derbyshire, has lost almost half of her body weight and dropped to a size 18.
She explained: “After losing my daughter I no longer cared about myself and I started eating gigantic portions of food.
“Losing Paris left me broken and I couldn’t stop thinking about her taking her final breaths so young.
“Food became my comfort. I’m only 5ft 2in and my husband is 6ft 3in and I would eat twice as much as him.
“I would have a packet of digestive biscuits for breakfast and I’d slug with Coke.
“At the start of 2017 I couldn’t walk from the bedroom to the bathroom without having an asthma attack – I was becoming totally immobile.” Amanda used the family’s house savings to pay for the surgery. She and husband Alistair had both agreed that there was no point investing in their own home if Amanda might soon be dead.
The operation that saved her life involves removing part of the stomach so that patients eat less.
It was a success, and Amanda lost 10 stone within a year.
She stopped having fizzy drinks, cut her portion sizes and used a workout bike for exercise. During a tummy tuck operation in October 2018 surgeons removed 32lb of excess skin. Amanda, who is now just under 15 stone, says she is still losing weight and her dream is to be a size 14. She said: “My family are now super proud of me and they know it’s been a long battle.
“I believe Paris would have been proud of me too. I miss her so much every single day, I wish she was here to see how much I’ve achieved.” it down