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ONE IN FIVE 13-16 YEAR OLDS IS NOW OVERWEIGHT. FACED WITH YEARS OF BULLYING AND TEASING, A GROWING NUMBER OF TEENAGERS ARE CHOOSING THE QUICK FIX OF THE SURGEON’S KNIFE...

By Diana Appleyard

Sixteen-year-old Joanne Stewart gripped the handrail and began to climb the stairs, wheezing hard as she took them one agonising step at a time.

For Joanne, who is 5ft 5in and weighed 24st, every small movement brought her out in a sweat.

“I couldn’t bear to look in the mirror,” she says. “I was a size 30 so my gran had to make my clothes, or I bought them from outsize catalogues.

“I hated going to school – when I walked into the playground they’d yell ‘Fatty!’ at me, or worse.”

Joanne, whose father is also overweight, was one of the 140,000 UK teenagers who were classed as clinically obese in 2005.

She is also one of a growing number of young people taking the drastic step of going under the surgeon’s knife as soon as they are legally allowed to do so.

Joanne was 18 when she took out a £10,000 loan to pay for a gastric band operation in July last year. Since then she has lost 10st and dropped to a size 18.

Now 19 and a student nurse, her target is to lose another 4st and get down to a size 12/14.

Joanne, from Glasgow, says: “There was no mystery to how I became so fat. I just ate too much and hardly exercised.

“My life seemed to be one long meal. For breakfast I’d have six rounds of toast, then I’d munch my way through 10 bars of chocolate, bags of crisps and huge platefuls of food throughout the day.”

Since the surgery she can only eat small meals. A typical day’s diet now consists of a small bowl of cereal for breakfast, home-made soup for lunch, and a tuna salad for dinner.

Surgery seems a radical step for someone so young, but Joanne felt it was the only way after she’d tried – and failed – to diet.

Britain’s obesity epidemic provides a grim backdrop to Joanne’s story. Teenage weight-loss camps say they regularly see children as young as five weighing up to 8st, when they should weigh around 3st.

Many surgeons are reluctant to perform cosmetic surgery on vulnerable teenagers, preferring to advocate a strict diet and exercise regime.

For those overweight teenagers who do ­go under the knife, the most commonly demanded surgery are gastric bands, stomach bypasses and liposuction.

“There’s no doubt surgery can work, but we have to get to the heart of the problem as to why so many children are overweight,” says Professor Paul Gateley, who oversees the Carnegie Weight Management camps.

However Joanne says surgery has been liberating for her.

“I can shop in normal places like New Look, and I can go out with friends knowing people aren’t going to call me names,” she says.

“I’ve always tried to be bubbly, but it’s hard when you’re fat. I was worried about my health and would get very breathless, but now I have a home gym and I’m working out every day to try to reach my 10st goal.”

David Pratt, 23, from Leicester, also turned to surgery at the age of 19 after weight loss left him with saggy “boy boobs” and loose skin around his stomach.­­­­

He began putting on weight aged eight, when his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

By 14 he weighed 26st and lived on a diet of bread and butter, crisps, chocolate and bacon sandwiches.

“At 16, I saw my GP and he said I was clinically obese,” reveals David, a mechanic. “That scared me, and I decided I had to do something about my weight or I would die.

“I cut out the rubbish, ate grilled chicken breasts and salads for tea, started walking everywhere, and played sport for the first time in my life.”

David’s weight dropped to 13st over the next two years, but the 6ft teenager was left with saggy DD breasts and layers of loose skin.

Still hating his appearance, he had a consultation at a cosmetic surgery clinic about a tummy tuck and breast reduction.

The two four-hour operations to remove fat and skin from his stomach and breasts cost him £8,000.

“I feel happy with the way I look and feel now,” he says.

“I’m so glad I had surgery. It’s not the answer to everything – I had to diet and exercise too – but it helped me get rid of excess skin and fat.

“Now I’m looking forward to a healthy future.”

‘I WAS NAIVE - SURGERY WAS A QUICK FIX’

Tasmin Williams, a business advisor from Windsor, was 19 when she had liposuction. Now 21, she says:

I’ve always been curvy but as a teenager I began to feel
self-conscious about my size.

I tried to lose weight through dieting and exercise but nothing ever worked fast enough.

By the age of 19 I weighed 12st and was a size 14. I hated my flabby tummy and big hips and decided I needed to do something drastic, so I scoured the internet and read about liposuction.

It sounded brilliant – I could have all the fat sucked out and I imagined myself as an overnight size 8!

My boyfriend David told me I didn’t need surgery but he agreed to pay £2,250 for me to have it done in Malaysia – half what it would have cost in Britain.

I had the hour-long op in June 2006.

Doctors sucked out four litres of fat, mainly from my stomach and some from my hips.

When I woke up, I was in agony.

Two weeks later, I was home. Although I’d been warned not
to expect results for about six months, they were visible almost instantly.

I had a lovely flat stomach and my hips were trimmer. I’d only lost about 7lb, but I’d dropped two dress sizes and was a size 10.

I felt attractive and full of confidence and went on a shopping spree, spending nearly £500 on sexy clothes.

But I carried on eating the same high-carb diet as before, and started to put the weight back on.

Two years later I’m a size 14-16, weigh 14st, and have just joined WeightWatchers.

The irony is that when I look at photos of myself before the operation, I can’t see what I was moaning about.

In hindsight I was naive about surgery.

It was a quick fix, and although I still have a flat stomach, I never thought about having to work hard to keep the weight off.

 

Should teenagers have surgery to lose weight? Would you consider going under the knife to lose weight or would it be the last resort? Rather than a quick fix solution like a gastric band, should we be getting to the heart of the problem instead?

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Photography: Alistair Devine, Jamie Hughes, Giles Park Hair & Make-Up: Rona Stewart at Model Team, Firyal Arneil at Time Agency, Kellie Mitchell at Joy Goodman Joanne wears clothes from Pink Marzipan (pinkmarzipan.com) Tasmin wears: clothes from Simply Be (simplybe.co.uk) Thanks to Transform cosmetic surgery group (transforminglives.co.uk) Joanne’s surgery by the Surgicare cosmetic surgery group, David’s surgery by Transform Clinic, Tasmin’s surgery by Body Beautiful