Mum Bought Me A £16,000 Body

- Sarah Holmes And Candice Fernandez

Yanking my size 28 jeans over my rolls of fat, I knew I couldn’t carry on like this. It was January 2015 and, for too long, I’d been making excuses for my 22st body, telling myself I was naturally curvy. But I knew better.

So, with my trousers still half-zipped, I picked up the phone and made the call to my doctor’s surgery to book a consultation for bariatric (gastric sleeve) surgery. Something had to change.

I’d always been a bigger girl, but when I started wearing size 16 clothes aged 16, the school bullies delighted in tearing me down with their nasty taunts. I turned to burgers, milkshakes and cheesy pizzas for emotional comfort, and in the middle of the night I’d sneak down the stairs and raid the fridge, gorging on cookies and thick slabs of cake.

By 18, I had a huge, doughy tummy and enormous H-cup boobs that I hated. But diets were hopeless. There was just so much to lose. And, the bigger I got, the lazier I became. I couldn’t even get through one term at university before I dropped out and went home to Mum.

Tragedy strikes

It was 2004 and, living in Florida, I adored the southern diet of deep-fried chicken wings, cornbread and barbecue beef. Come the weekend, I’d spend hours knocking back sugary cocktails in the bar with friends.