M: Mai
A: Anne Diamond
S: Shaw Summers

M: Hello I’m Mai Davis and welcome to today’s Health and Beauty show. Now did you know that over a quarter of us in the UK are classed as clinically obese, now that’s a huge number, 25% of us? In 2002 a staggering £500 million was spent by the NHS on obesity, so it’s not just one of the biggest killers in the UK it’s also a very expensive one. Now one potential solution for this is weight loss surgery. Now you may have heard of this earlier this year because TV and radio presenter Anne Diamond had a gastric band fitted before she went on Celebrity Fit Club and Anne joins us today to talk about this and to talk about your personal journey, so thank you for coming in. Also with Anne we’ve got Shaw Summers who is a bariatric surgeon – you perform this kind of surgery don’t you Shaw?

S: Yes

M: And he’s from the UK hospital group that is the UK’s biggest cosmetic and weight loss surgery group. Now if you want to ask either of these a question it’s very simple, you just go to the bottom of the screen where you can see a button, you write your name, you write your question and tell us where you’re from and we’ll try to get as many of them answered in the next half hour as we possibly can. So Anne, let me ask you first of all – can I say you do look fantastic –

A: Thank you

M: So it’s obviously worked for you?

A: Yes it has

M: It must have been a big decision to go for this surgery, what made you do it?

A: Well I think that anyone opting for surgery, you always think you’re tempting fate somehow don’t you, it is quite a frightening decision to make. On the other hand you have to weigh it up against what you think is happening to you, and I was about 99 kilos, that’s 15 stone 10 and I think I was on the brink –

M: How tall are you?

A: 5 foot 4 so I’m quite short actually. I was on the brink, I think of facing all of the things- I could feel them beginning to happen almost. Diabetes, you know the risk of heart disease – even cancer, obesity increases the risk of cancer, yes. Stroke, all of those nasty things that go with being morbidly obese – it’s a horrible term but I was there

M: Were you classed as morbidly obese?

A: Yes I’m afraid so. Horrible isn’t it? I don’t know I tried everything to lose weight I really had spent a good 10 years trying everything, yo-yo dieting. Every time I lost weight I put it all back on again – and more

M: Which is what many people say

A: It’s classic. The trouble is you have to – at some point you have to think, am I going to go on doing this for the next 10 years, you know waste my 50s doing it as well, and still with the prospect of getting to the age of 60 still, maybe even more obese, with all of those problems just about to happen to me, or am I going to be proactive and do something now? And I want to be around for my kids to grow up and have my grandchildren, I want to be around – I want to be healthy and fit and slim, I like it. It’s much nicer than being morbidly obese. So I decided after trying everything else the only way I wanted to go forward was to research a bit of obesity, sorry surgery – obesity surgery and I found out about the gastric band

M: Which is what you do Shaw, you fit these gastric bands. Can you tell us what is this surgery, for somebody who doesn’t know what a gastric band is, what is it?

S: It’s one of the types of operations that’s available to help people gain control of their diet and their eating, and there’s no real magic to it, it is simply a device that slows down the way you eat. Gastric banding is essentially a little rubber ring that goes around the stomach so that your stomach is turned into an hour glass shape, and the food goes in the top end and collects there, makes you feel full much more quickly so you have to eat slowly, chew properly –

M: And do you eat less as well?

S: You do because to try and eat a full plateful of food is going to take –

A: 24 hours!

M: We’ve got a picture of it here, can you tell us what we’re looking at? This is obviously a stomach

S: That is a stomach and the top of the picture you see the bottom of the gullet, and the little granules of food are going down the gullet and they collect in the little pouch of stomach above a band. The little white thing is the band

A: Is the band

S: And the band has a tail to it, the tubing, which is attached to a port – that little button on the top left there, top right sorry. That button is used then to adjust the band after the surgery so that you can tighten it up to help restrict the way that the food goes through

M: Ok well let’s take some questions because we’ve got some emails coming through already, a lot of people want to talk to you both on this subject. This one is from Samantha and she wants to know, she says “I’m looking into having a gastric bypass on the NHS, my GP has put me forward as I lost 13 stone” – ah but she’s put 7 stone back on, she says she finds it hard to keep it off, she’s got an under-active thyroid and polycystic ovaries, she wants to know “do you think I’m doing the right thing, I’m now 20 stone 9 pounds, I’ll be grateful for your help.” I think that’s a question for you Shaw really isn’t it?

S: I think almost certainly weight loss surgery is a potential help for Samantha, I think that anyone whose at the 20 stone mark – you’d have to be about 8 foot tall to make that in any way appropriate –

A: And she’s already been on a long journey by the sounds of it –

S: Yes she’s done the weight loss, she’s in the middle of yo-yoing and I think she needs to go and talk to a specialist who understands exactly what obesity surgery can do

M: Ok we’ve got another question from Wendy she wants to know “how much was the stomach band operation and would it be safe at the age of 65?” she says “I’m desperate and I’ll lose my husband if I don’t lose weight soon, I’m 15 stone and 5 foot 4, thank you.” She’s the same height as you Anne

A: Never mind losing your husband, it’s more important that you don’t lose your health, I think, so do it for you not for anyone else. It’s a big step to make. Don’t, and also don’t be pulled in by adverts that say it’s much much cheaper to go abroad, it may be in certain circumstances but you have to take into account lots of other things, and this is why I’m telling my story at the moment is because I make, I made what I consider a mistake – I went to Belgium, I got a botched job which is why it didn’t work in the first place, and I had to be re-operated on by Shaw

M: Could that have put you at risk or it just didn’t work?

A: Well I think it – in certain circumstances Shaw argues if lots of things had gone wrong it could have put you at increased risk. Frankly I felt at increased risk just being so far away from my surgeon, it’s nice to be close to him! It really is because it’s a scary thing

M: How much did it cost because Wendy wanted to know how much it cost you?

A: Well the operation in Britain costs between £6-7000 that’s not just the operation that’s the aftercare as well and you do need a lot of aftercare

M: Very quickly she said “am I too old at 65?” Shaw?

S: Potentially not but I would actually advise her to go and see a specialist who will give her the proper advice as to whether it really is for her or not

M: Ok next question then, this is from Helen. She says “what would you say to people considering this surgery – is it a quick fix?” because a lot of people might be thinking “don’t go on a diet, try this.” I’m sure a hundred people have said that to you today already

A: I don’t know how people – you see I think people who are calling it a quick fix, and of course the media do that, that’s because they’re not reading properly, people like me have spent 10 / 15 years trying everything else first. No way is it a quick fix, but even when you get it done it’s not a quick fix, you have to learn how to live with it, you have to learn how to eat so that it optimises what it’s going to do for you. Obviously if you’re eating so much less you’ve got to make sure that what you’re eating is good for you. If you’re losing weight you’ve got to do some exercise to make sure that you’re going to lose weight in the right way. It is no quick fix, it ain’t easy

M: No well we had one question in from Wendy who is 65, on the other end of the scale now we’ve got a question from Josephina, she’s 18 years old and she asks if she’s too young for the surgery Shaw?

S: Not necessarily, it does depend on how heavy she is and what she’s done to try and lose weight through other means. It’s certainly not the first option but for some people it’s the only way they’re going to get their weight down

M: We’ve got another question here actually from Nora, very similar – she says, “my daughter’s 17 and wants to have the operation, is this too young?”

S: Lot of debate going on about surgery in teenage, I think 17 you should certainly start thinking about it if your weight is a significant problem, it will depend on the individual and the individual surgeon as to whether they’re prepared to look after someone lifelong from that age

A: Could she still be growing at 17?

S: Well there are issues about that. If you’re 17 and weight 25 stone then something’s got to be done whatever age. 15 and 25 stone I’m afraid people are out there like that, so it does depend on the individual case which is why you need to see a specialist and go and see someone who actually knows what they’re doing

M: A lot of people will obviously want to know what the risks are and we’ve got a question in from Susan, she wants to know just that, what are the risks of having the operation?

S: The risks of having the operation directly are partly the risks of having an anaesthetic, things like blood clots etc

M: That’s more risky if you’re overweight isn’t it?

S: If you’re overweight, you know again if you go to someone who knows what they’re up to they will minimise the risks for the individual. And then there’s the risks of the band op not going well, overall though I have to make the judgement “is having the op less risky than leaving the person to be overweight and having the –

M: And having to suffer from all the things Anne was talking about earlier?

A: Well that’s right, that’s the personal dilemma you face as well, you know not having this surgery – what’s going to happen to me if I don’t have it, what’s going to happen to me if I do? It becomes a very personal decision

M: A question from Betty wants to know “what happens if the operation doesn’t work, what other operations are available” – because your first one didn’t work did it?

A: My first one didn’t work but that’s because the band was put in the wrong place, it wasn’t because of the failure of the band, we didn’t know it at the time, we didn’t know it till I had an x-ray at Shaw’s, but well you’ll know, does it ever not work?

S: It does, you know that’s where you need to see someone whose done a great deal of the surgery and who specialises it and who is a recognised expert, who will actually look at each individual case where it hasn’t worked, and find out is it the band, is it the person, is it a combination of the two?

M: It could be either could it?

S: Now if the band doesn’t work because the band is at fault then there are other operations that can be done, things like a gastric bypass. There are other procedures, which will work effectively

M: That’s not as simple presumably as the gastric band?

S: No it’s not as simple, it’s not as widely applicable but it does work and for some individuals it is the right way to go

A: But you do have to treat the band as an aid – it isn’t an absolute – it’s not going to do all the work for you. I mean I could eat Mars bars, crisps and drink alcohol all night and probably not lose any weight, you’ve got to put your own effort in too

M: So it’s a joint effort between you and the band really isn’t it?

A: It’s exactly that, yes

M: Ok let’s get another question in now, we’ve got one from – we’ve just had one from Nora, Chloe says “hi Anne, do you still exercise since having the band fitted?”

A: Yes I do. In a way having the surgery, going to all of that extent of – going through the mental thing of having the surgery, makes you more committed, I think, to losing weight. As long as you don’t do what we just said ‘oh I’ve got a band it can do all the work now.’ I think you’ve – you’re losing a lot of weight, usually people who have the band are very obese – you’re losing an awful lot of weight so the only way to make sure your body can take the readjustment is to do quite a bit of exercise. And I exercise more than I did when I was in Celebrity Fit Club, I do actually I exercise 2 or 3 times a week

M: Well talking about readjustment we’ve got a question here from Daniel “it sounds like a drastic operation” – I’ve heard that word apply to this operation quite a few times I’m sure you have – “is the procedure painful to have and to recover from, and by the way can you ask Anne and the doc how “bad” the operation is in terms of pain and recovery?”

A: The word drastic’s an interesting use of the word, because it’s drastic to die from obesity too

M: Absolutely

A: But – well yes all right it’s been called drastic, and I did feel very worried about it at the time but – I don’t know it’s just one of those decisions – how painful? Actually not that painful at all! You have to have a good surgeon –

M: It’s keyhole isn’t it?

A: It’s keyhole, basically yes they make 4 tiny little incisions around your stomach – it’s all done – I don’t know how you guys do it, but they do it all sort of like that with long handles. When you wake up you do feel sore, but I was walking within – well same day actually. It took 2 days to really recover. The only slightly painful bit is where they put this port thing, which is nearer the surface, so you just feel a bit more uncomfortable there but within a week you feel normal again

S: In terms of the drastic argument, people have to be aware of what we’re weighing up – we’re weighing up the risks of a straightforward keyhole operation against the risks of staying obese, and having the healthcare risks and it’s quite clear – it’s not experimental surgery, we know the facts now that the risks of having the op are less than the risks of staying clinically obese for life

M: Daniel’s used the word drastic, I suppose staying clinically obese is equally drastic

S: It is

M: For your health isn’t it?

S: Yes

A: And the fact is as well most people don’t stay obese at one level, it gets worse

S: It tends to creep up

M: Question in from Roger, he says, “my wife is thinking of having the operation but I don’t think she needs to. She’s a size 16, what advice can you give?” Anne?

A: Size 16, well I was a size 16 about 4 weeks ago. I don’t know what does that make your BMI; I wouldn’t have thought probably that was overweight enough to warrant the operation

S: Again there is a grey area where how big is big enough, and I think it depends on the individual, it depends whether they have any other problems, whether it’s affecting their quality of life and this is where again you need to see a reputable specialist who will help you come to the right decision rather than go and buy a cheap operation because by and large they’ll operate on anybody

M: And that’s not a good sign is it?

S: No

M: We’ve got a question from Sarah here and it’s for you, it says “do you think you cheated Celebrity Fit Club by having the band fitted?”

A: It’s interesting because – my story, and this is why I’m doing a tour of gigs, I’m doing a tour, I’m telling people about my story because basically there is a moral in my story in that I went to Belgium first of all because I wanted it to remain anonymous, I wanted it all to be totally confidential, but it didn’t work. We now know it’s because it was put in the wrong place. I gave up on it completely; I thought maybe I’d bought into some weird gadget that hadn’t worked –

M: You must have been very disappointed

A: Terribly – I can’t – I was devastated because it was a big decision to take the surgery and then it didn’t work. I tried everything to make it work, in the end it didn’t – I gave up on it. That’s when Celebrity Fit Club came along and said ‘would you like to take part?’ and I thought well maybe that’s the only thing that’s going to work for me, so I went into it. I didn’t tell Fit Club that I’d had it done because a) they wouldn’t have understood and b) it was irrelevant by then, it wasn’t working for me, so I didn’t have an unfair advantage at all because the blinking thing wasn’t working. The great thing was after all the furore a lady called Donna Ross rang me up, she’s from the Hospital Group and she said, “we can’t understand why it’s not working for you, come and see Shaw”. I came to see Shaw, we had an x-ray done and there it was in the wrong place. When the band is put in the right place it works

M: There’s a question here from Hen, I think it’s Henrietta – it just says Hen here. “What was it that made you finally decide to have the operation?” I presume she means the first time

A: Yo-yoing. Dieting, thinking it’s working, thinking it’s going to be alright, and then yo-yoing and putting more weight back on, and dieting again

M: So did you lose weight on the diets and then put it back on again?

A: I’ve lost the same 4 stone 3 times now! But the great thing about now is that I know I’m not going back, I can’t yo-yo, this is an end to the yo-yoing. It’s also the end to an obsession with food, the obsession, the worrying about every time you get invited out to dinner thinking “oh no I’m going to blow this diet”. I wake up in the morning now knowing I had a good day yesterday food-wise and that’s a terrific feeling

M: Helen here says “what made you choose surgery over a strict diet?”

A: Because I’d done all the diets, I’d cabbage souped and brussell sprouted and f-planned and g-planned and every other plan you can imagine and yes some of them work if you can really stick to them, but they only work in the short term and then you bounce back. Will power is great but it’s not with you every single day of the blinking year, and when it lets you down it lets you down – I needed something more reliable

S: The whole thing about sustainable weight loss is that you have to still be able to eat normal food. It’s like the meal replacement diets, they’re brilliant, they work really well –

M: But it’s not normal food

S: You can’t live like that and so you know they’ll get you down to a target weight for a set date, if you want to go there – a wedding, a function. However one day you’re going to have to eat normal food again and when that happens it is almost impossible to stay on that weight line because real food does things to your metabolism that does not equate with continued weight loss

M: No it’s about changing your life isn’t it? Just to say quickly we’re halfway through the programme now so keep the questions coming in. All you have to do is hit the button at the bottom of your screen. Give us your name, where you’re from and your question for Anne and Shaw we’ve got another 15 minutes so try and get those questions in and we’ll try and get as many answered as we can. What do you think you can tell people – we’re getting a lot of questions now and they’ve written technical questions, but if there was one thing you could say to people who are just sitting at home thinking “I’m fed up, I can’t do it any more, I’m yo-yo dieting” – what would you say to them?

A: I think what I want to say is that there is an answer. It may not be surgery for you, it may be something else, but there is a way to beat this, and I’m just worried that the government talk, and Jamie Oliver’s talk is about the next generation which is great, wonderful – don’t get me wrong, I think the job, particularly Jamie Oliver is doing is fantastic, but what about this generation of people who have made some mistakes, who’ve ended up the wrong end of all this, you know this poor dear here.

M: This is the before picture isn’t it?

A: This is before, this is the 99 kilo Anne Diamond who you know – thank God I was able to find something that worked for me, and what I’m saying is it may not be surgery for you, but there is something out there but you’ve got to be helped, supported – go to your GP or your specialist. Go to fathappens.com and get the support and compassion you need

M: Fathappens.com is your website?

A: It’s my website and it’s a totally free website and it’s just set up so that people can act as a community, they can buddy up, they can help each other because it’s hard enough losing weight in this society without having people throw bricks back at you all the time. You need friends and support and that’s where you’ll get them

M: We’ve got some very short quick fire questions coming in now – Jo wants to know “hello Anne. How long were you in hospital?”

A: For the operation?

M: Yes

A: The first time one day the second time one day

M: That’s not long

A: No it’s not

M: Sarah wants to know “can you feel the band?”

A: No I can feel the port

M: That bit’s gone

A: The little bit up here that the surgeon can access with a needle if he wants to

M: You can still feel that now can you?

A: Oh yes that’s there, yes – it’s a little –

M: Does that bother you?

A: Good God no

S: It’s like a little button under the skin

A: Doesn’t bother me, it’s nice to know it’s there! Otherwise you can’t feel a thing, not a thing

M: Ok, Wendy wants to know how big are the scars but she’s not asking to show them, it’s alright

A: About an inch long

M: About an inch?

A: If that

S: Yes if that, most of them are just under an inch

A: One’s about an inch, the rest are about a centimetre long – and very well done

M: How many is it?

A: Four is it?

S: Four or five, depends on the technique used, yes

M: And where do the scars go?

S: Usually above the tummy button, across the tummy, all spread out

M: Right we’ve got a question here from Chloe “if you had your surgery again what would you do differently?”

A: I wouldn’t go to Belgium! I just wouldn’t – I’d go to the Hospital Group I suppose because they’re the people who rescued me so I feel tremendously emotional about the fact that they did help me, and Shaw who did such a good job

M: So it’s important to get well-educated –

A: You’ve got to really do your research, do your homework

S: You’ve got to get the information I think, there are plenty of information resources out there. I think Anne’s website helps direct people to get all the facts, and when they’ve got the facts they can actually go and talk to a specialist. The most important thing is to make sure that they a) do a lot of the surgery and it is their main job and also that they’ve got good results. There’s nothing wrong with asking a surgeon what their results are

A: I’ll tell you what the other thing is, don’t be like I was and in the way the fact that we’re talking about it now is helping – don’t be ashamed. It’s a great way forward, you know for some people. It’s not for everybody –

M: Because it’s a big stigma obesity isn’t it?

A: It is a positive way to tackle your problem. Relatively safe. Effective so don’t be done down by all the people going “ooh”. I talked about it with 2 doctors, GPs before and they both did their best to put me off. I spent a year flailing around wondering what to do, because their natural reaction was to say “oh no you don’t want to go down that route”. Actually it was the right route for me.

M: Well Holly wants to know how long was it before you noticed results?

A: They are quite strict with you after you have had the operation you have to go on basically about four weeks of liquid food. Two weeks of liquid, two weeks of pureed baby-type food. You have to give your stomach an easy ride because it has just had something put round it, which it has never experienced before. So you have got to give things an easy ride. So in that four weeks, as you are terrified and you don’t want to do anything nasty to it, you can lose quite a few pounds. After that you go back to normal eating and that is when you notice the restriction. Where you could have sat down and eaten a whole pizza suddenly you can’t. So you start losing weight almost immediately. Slowly but surely.

M: Question here from Helen who wants to know “Anne would you have considered any other form of surgery?”. Like the by-pass we were talking about earlier.

A: I was very attracted to the band, because it is removable. It is a big step taking elective surgery. You think if I am going to have something put inside me, at least one day if I change my mind I can have it removed. I don’t feel like that now. It is in me and I want it to stay and they are designed to stay. The gastric by-pass is something you could have considered for me.

S: It is something that a specialist would be able to talk through with you as an individual patient. The reason we choose one operation rather than another will depend on each individual. Everyone eats slightly differently and has different likes and dislikes. Certain operations suit certain people. The thing is not to make your own mind up as to what you want before you have spoken to someone who can advise you and give you the pros and cons of each.

M: For anybody who has just joined us, can you just go over again exactly how it works?

S: The operations that are available work in different ways. For Anne I replaced a gastric band and basically that just limits the rate at which you can eat. You have to eat slowly and choose the foods appropriately. Whereas with a by-pass operation not only do you get the restriction, but you also reduce your appetite because the digestion has been short-circuited. So certain foods like sweet food go off the menu totally. You will get a reaction against them.

A: So if you where a “sweetaholic” one of those people who has such a sweet tooth, that that is probably the reason you are obese.

S: Sweetaholics and diabetics tend to do better with by-passes. Again it is down to the individual and that is where my job as a specialist is to help guide people to what I think would be best for them.

A: I have never had a really sweet tooth.

M: You said to me you have managed to give up chocolate now.

A: Yes exactly. I was always a volume eater and the gastric band is good for a volume eater because it reduces the volume of food you can eat.

M: Have you met any other people who have had the same as you?

A: I have now, yes. It is amazing how many people come out of the woodwork. People come up to me and say, “I have had a band fitted and I have lost ten stone.” People have lost amazing amounts of weight. It is not just about vanity, losing weight or being obsessed with weight, it is about getting your life back. That is what we are calling the tour of gigs I am doing “Getting your life back”. Your body is your life. You can’t be a mother, a wife, a career woman if you haven’t got the body to support it. You need a healthy body being man or woman.

M: And the energy presumably being a lot lighter, you have got a lot more energy to run round after your children.

A: We are human animals we are meant to be fit and slim.

M: Gerry wants to know what was your BMI (Your body mass index) before and what is it now?

A: All I know is that when I was fat I was 99 Kilos and I am not now.

M: What is that in pounds?

A: 15 stone 10. I had a BMI that made me morbidly obese.
M: What does BMI mean for those people who are not quite sure?

S: BMI is a medical way of relating height to weight. If you weigh 16 stone but you are 6ft 2, then that is about right. If you weigh 16 stone but you are 5ft 2 that is not good. The BMI is a way of evening it out. A BMI over 35 is what we call morbid obesity. That means not that it is morbid to look at but it gives you morbidity.

M: How do you find out what your BMI is?

S: It is a formula. Basically it is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in metres.

A: There are lots of places you can go on the Internet. Type in BMI calculator and there will be lots of them there and you just type it in and out it comes.

M: Daniel wants to know is the operation a one-off or is it similar to operations such as pacemakers, which need to be redone every few years. Is Anne’s band there for good now or is it to be replaced?

S: It is there for good. They are designed to be there for good. About 1 in 15-20 will develop a problem over a lifetime and may need replacing.

M: How do you know when you have got a problem?

S: Either it stops working, and you put weight on or you just can’t tolerate food. Something has happened to it and it is blocking everything. You can’t eat anything.

A: That is why it is good to have easy access to your surgeon, so that if there is something that is worrying you about the way you’re eating or there is a change in pattern, at least you have got somebody, you can easily go and see and you can talk it over with.

M: There is a question here from Annette. What was the first thing you noticed with regard to eating? I know you said earlier that you couldn’t eat a whole pizza. Was that the first thing you noticed or was it gradual?

A: No it was gradual. You come off the baby food diet after the operation and you are a little bit timid about trying normal foods again. So you try things that are slightly chunkier.

M: So you didn’t go straight for a vindaloo?

A: No I didn’t. I will tell you what I have noticed now is that I have turned into the sort of person who used to annoy me in the olden days. I can happily go to a restaurant and eat a tiny amount of food, happily chatting away with my friends; I let the waiter take away the rest. I used to look at people who could eat quarter of a pizza and think they were from Mars. Now I am one of them. It is an empowerment.

M: Can you send the alcohol back though? Jill wants to know can you drink alcohol after the operation?

A: Alcohol goes down just as easily as ever before. So you know that that is where you have to use restraint.

S: For most people who have had weight loss surgery they find that actually alcohol is more effective. You only have to have one instead of three.

A: You save money.

M: That is one way of looking at it. Do you find that you have to educate people in how to eat afterwards? Is it quite a long process?

S: It is a tool and an aid you can’t expect it to do the work for you. You don’t have the surgery then say right I have had it now the weight will come off. You have to work with it but you have to be told how to work with it. You have to be coached and supported, which is why it is so important to have the follow up. That is why going abroad for surgery where the follow up is so far away is not always a good idea.

A: If indeed any follow up is offered to you at all. It wasn’t to me. I didn’t even know there was a need for it.

S: Most surgery in Britain is sold with follow up included. I would advise anyone to only go to places where they insist on following you up.

A: Your body is very clever. It makes its own decisions it thinks right you can’t have that whopping great Vindaloo or that enormous pizza, but you can have a couple of biscuits because they crumble down really easily. So if you are not careful and you didn’t have constant follow up and help from dieticians you would fall in to bad ways. You actually might develop a sweet tooth, where you didn’t before. You need to constantly keep a check and constantly have a conversation about what is happening to you.

M: Sarah wants to know are you happier now Anne?

A: I can’t tell you. It seems superficial to say I have lost weight therefore I am happier, but I am happier that I have regained my health. I am very happy about that. I feel great. I am much more energetic.

S: For most people, I have done hundreds of weight loss procedures and the thing that keeps coming back to me is that people will come back to clinic and say “yeah I feel happier and life still has its ups and downs” but gone is the fixation that I am going to eat something and I am going to feel bad about it. You are just released from this fixation with food, this terrible feeling that you are going to do something that you regret. That is what weight loss surgery can do for you.

M: You don’t just get your body back you get your emotional health back and control.

A: And self esteem.

M: Which is very important and so wrapped up with how we look. A question from Imogen you are going to be touring talking about your experiences. She wants to know where you are going to be touring in the UK? She obviously wants to come and see you.

A: Frankly most of the major cities, we don’t actually know yet, but there has been a fantastic response and we are having to rethink the venues.

M: What is the tour called?

A: It is called “Get your life back” because that is really the message I want to give out. I am not saying surgery for everybody, no way either of us would say that. It is just that there are ways of beating obesity. Thinking of this generation now, you can’t just be written off and don’t write yourself off there is a way out of this. Probably the best way out of it is to arm yourself with all the facts. So it is called the ”Get your life back” tour. I don’t know the dates yet but if you go to fathappens.com the minute we know the dates and the venues we will put them up there.

M: And you can go to the hospital groups website which is hospitalgroup.org if you want more information on the tour. So there is just time for me to say thank you both of my guests. Thank you Shaw for explaining it to us and thank you Anne for being so honest and frank about it.

S: Thank you.

A: Thank you.

M: I am sure you have given a lot of people who were worried about their weight a lot of inspiration.

A: I hope so.

M: thank you for coming in. That is it for the health and beauty show brought to you by the Hospital Group. We will see you next time. Thank for watching.