I'm sure I can't be the only person in the world who sometimes sighs when he sees his bulging waistline. Every time I'm forced to throw away a pair of perfectly-good trousers just because I can't tip by flabby beer gut into them anymore, I feel totally depressed. All those hours spent at the gym, on treadmills, lifting weights, and those endless trips to the salad bar, only seem to be stalling the inevitable. I know in my heart that I'm slowly getting tubby. Sometimes I genuinely wish there was a way to just bypass all the hassle and hard work and just get slimmer without effort.
However, maybe I should be careful what I wish for. As it turns out, some people really can't help losing pounds due to personal health problems. Lee Baker, a 42-year-old former chocolate shop manager who hails from Margate, Kent, used to be overweight. He admits as much himself, and in the past, he sometimes wished himself thin.
But now a rare disease known as gastroparesis has paralysed the muscles in his stomach and led him to shed more than half his body weight due to malnutrition. In fact, the last full meal Lee ate was a plate of spaghetti bolognese back in 2016. He now subsides almost entirely on high-calorie milkshakes and nutritional supplements, and longs for the days when he could binge on fried food.
Lee, has now made public a number of shocking pictures of his painfully thin frame, hoping that he can raise awareness of his condition. Commenting on his condition, Lee stated: "I long for the day I can eat again. I want a fry-up. Eggs, sausages, hash browns. It’s all I dream of ... Sometimes, I’m sick seven or eight times a day. I can’t work anymore and I’ve never not worked a day in my life. I’m getting physically weaker every day."
He added: "I’m desperate for this surgery ...It’s like a pacemaker and, in some people with gastroparesis, it reduces nausea and vomiting. I feel like it’s the only option I have to get through this ... I just want to eat again. But I can’t have it immediately on the NHS, as they want to try other options first and it is a rare procedure. I’m the incredible shrinking man. I’m, quite literally, half the man I once was. All I want is to be able to have a fry up and not to die."
Lee's condition is being managed by regular botox injections to loosen his stomach muscles, and is currently on the waiting list for gastric electrical stimulation surgery at a hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, which will hopefully be able to control his weight. The procedure will involve implanting a device known as a neurostimulator in the abdomen, which will then send mild electrical pulses to the nerves and muscles in his lower stomach.
If you'd like to help Lee get better, then do him a favour and check out his special fundraiser for the surgery which can save his life.
