Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I had to pay £4,500 to get my daughter on a slimming programme
A MUM devastated by her daughter’s weight was forced to dip into her pension to pay for the MoreLife programme after repeated appeals to the NHS to fund the treatment failed.
Midwife Rosalyn Wilson was desperate to get help for her daughter Mia after the 15-year-old’s weight shot up to 19 stone.
The single mum asked the NHS to pay for the residential scheme but they refused.
Two further appeals to the Luton NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, backed by Mia’s GP, were also turned down.
She said: “I told the NHS that if she wasn’t able to lose the weight she would still cost them by developing diabetes, arthritis and other conditions associated with gross obesity. But they weren’t prepared to fund the camp.”
Rosalyn then turned to child obesity charities to help fund the treatment, but when these also failed she had to dip into her own pension for £4,500 fees.
“It was a huge blow,” she recalled. “But I knew I needed to get it done.”
Her payoff worked and since Mia visited the MoreLife camp last summer she has slimmed down to 14.4 stone and is now two stone away from her target weight of 12 stone.
“It was absolutely wonderful seeing her transformation,” said Rosalyn, who is urging the NHS to fund this treatment for others.”