Mum Who Lost 16½ Stone Told to Gain Weight to Qualify for NHS Excess-Skin Surgery
Lisa Smith, 44, from St Helens, Merseyside, says she has been placed in a baffling position after being told she must gain weight in order to qualify for an operation to remove excess skin from her stomach.
The mother-of-three has lost 16-and-a-half stone, but despite that achievement, she says she cannot access the surgery she needs to address the loose, sagging skin around her abdomen—unless she puts some of the weight back on.
Lisa’s health journey began after the birth of her son in 2008, when she was diagnosed with diabetes-related heart failure. She says NHS doctors delivered a stark warning at the time, telling her to “diet or die.”
At her heaviest, Lisa weighed 28 stone. Determined to improve her health, she followed a strict diet and achieved a dramatic transformation, dropping from a dress size 36 to a size 8. She now weighs just over 11 stone, even though she continues to take insulin daily to manage her condition.
Lisa says she was initially told that if she reached her target weight, the NHS would fund surgery to remove the excess skin. Later, she claims, she was told there was no money left to pay for the procedure.
However, she now meets criteria for skin-removal surgery because her diabetes diagnosis may qualify her for treatment—yet she has been told she must regain some of the weight she worked so hard to lose.
Lisa says she is speaking out because she believes the situation represents a waste of taxpayers’ money, and she insists she does not want to “abuse the system.”
“I’m just trapped in the most ridiculous situation,” she said. “I lost more than 16-and-a-half stone myself through healthy eating but my health is worse than ever.”
She says the pressure to meet eligibility requirements had serious consequences. “I was told to lose more weight to get funding which triggered anorexia and bulimia,” she said. “And now that I’ve done that I’ve been told there is still no funding, so my best chance would be to put the weight on again and have NHS weight loss surgery—which I would get because of my diabetes.”
Lisa argues that this approach makes little sense financially. “It’s such a joke,” she said. “That would cost the NHS even more money than just funding the skin removal. But I can’t work to pay for the operation myself because of the diabetes, so I’m in a catch-22 situation.”
She added that the physical and emotional toll has become overwhelming. “All I know is I can’t go on living like this and I’m worried my ten-year-old son will find me dead. Life trapped in this awful body is horrible. I just want a chance to get my life back on track after working so hard to lose weight.”
Lisa’s health scare, she says, started in the hospital after she complained of breathlessness and was initially treated as though she might have asthma. She was kept in hospital, but doctors later told her the real cause was diabetes-related heart failure, and she says staff were so concerned that she was told she had only weeks to live.
“They thought I wouldn’t make it out of the hospital alive. I was in shock,” Lisa said. “I’d just had a baby and was facing death.”
Over time, she says she reduced her BMI from 70 to 28 by sticking to a strict healthy eating plan. But after the weight loss, she was devastated to find significant excess skin hanging from her waist. She says NHS staff told her she would need to pay privately to have it removed.
Lisa says she now lives with anorexia and bulimia, and wants public health authorities to recognize what she describes as the reality faced by people who successfully lose extreme amounts of weight.
“I’ve gone from obese to bulimic trying to qualify for this operation, only to now be told the only way is to put the weight back on,” she said.
She believes the policy implications are damaging. “The system is basically going to force men and women to not bother trying to lose weight themselves because they know they’ll get no help with the skin at the end.”