Weigh to go for slimline Sue (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Weigh to go for slimline Sue

1:30pm Saturday 6th February 2010

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SHE once weighed in at nearly 20 stone – but Sue Murray is now almost half the woman she was.

The IT project manager from Basingstoke has shed a whopping eight stone after surgery shrunk her stomach to the size of an egg.

Sue, from Rooksdown, had a gastric bypass operation at BMI The Hampshire Clinic in Old Basing, and has spent the last year watching the weight fall off her.

But as well as the dramatic weight loss, crucially, the crippling pain of her arthritis has faded away.

The 50-year-old said: “My confidence has soared and my husband Neil couldn’t be happier that the woman he married is returning – I am so happy.

“I met a guy through work recently who used to work with me two or three years ago. He did not recognise me at first.”

The new-look Sue is now a shadow of her former hefty 19-stone self.

Her transformation began last summer after she blacked out while bending down to retrieve money she had dropped. The effort of standing up was just too much and she fainted.

Another humiliating incident also haunted her. A visit to Paris was marred when she struggled to climb the Notre Dame towers. She was so slow that a tailback of 50 people built up behind her. Halfway up she collapsed exhausted, before enduring the mortifying spectacle of tourists clambering over her.

It was from the age of 40 that the weight had really piled on, partly because of a thyroid problem.

She said: “Since then, I steadily got bigger and bigger and soon became very conscious about it.”

Painkillers failed to combat the agony of her arthritis and the excruciating pain ruled out losing weight through an active lifestyle. Diets came and went without any success and her condition stalled any attempt at exercising.

Sue said her declining health, linked to her escalating weight, was the catalyst for the radical solution.

“The cosmetic side did not come into it,” she said.

Many surgical options are available on the NHS but Sue decided to go private. Doctors ruled out liposuction because of her weight but gastric surgery, costing about £6,000, was offered as a solution.

Patients must have a body mass index (BMI) measurement of 35 or more. Sue’s BMI was 45 but it was also her dietary habits which made it a good option.

She opted to have the procedure done by Streamline Surgical at The Hampshire Clinic. Bariatric surgeon Shaw Somers, who is known as the “Fat Doctor’ on the TV channel Discovery Home and Health, performed the three-hour operation, and Sue was out of hospital within four days.

Using keyhole surgery that left just three tiny scars, Mr Somers created a small stomach pouch the size of an egg by stapling the upper part of Sue’s stomach.

A metre-long section of the intestine was then bypassed, so not only was the amount that Sue could eat drastically reduced, she would also absorb far less from the food she ate.

For about six months, a dietary rehab period followed, which required just soft and easy foods. After that, Sue ate normal foods but just in much smaller quantities.

The effects of the surgery are permanent, but as the years pass, the weight loss will be less drastic and Sue will stabilise just above her ideal weight.

Sue said she now feels she can look forward to a healthier pain free life, and, of course, a wider selection of clothes.

She added: “Sitting in a seat – whether it was on a plane, in a cinema, train, anywhere was an embarrassment – but now it’s not an issue.”

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