SURGERY IN TURKEY left me fighting for my life

Louise Rogers’ 25-year battle with her weight left her in a critical condition

- RACHEL TOMPKINS, KATE GRAHAM

When it comes to your appearance, they say you’re never happy with what you have – always striving for a smaller nose, bigger bust or straighter teeth. For me it was my weight. It started bothering me after I had my children, my first son in 1996 and the second two years later. Before that I had always weighed about 9st, which was healthy for my 5ft 6in frame. But after the boys I struggled to lose the pregnancy weight and gradually more crept on.

I tried every diet going and while I didn’t find it hard to lose weight, I found it impossible to maintain the loss. This continued for decades and by December 2021, I weighed 16st 8lb, wore size-22 clothes and was classed as morbidly obese. My confidence and self-worth was at an all-time low and I detested looking in the mirror, hating myself for getting so big.

Then, in 2022, I noticed a friend had lost a lot of weight and looked incredible. She told me she had gone to Cyprus to have a gastric sleeve operation because it was cheaper there than in the UK. About the same time another friend lost a lot of weight after having the same operation in Turkey.

Both spoke extremely positively about the experience, and their new-found confidence was something I desperately craved.

So I spoke to my GP about getting similar surgery on the NHS but discovered I wasn’t heavy enough to qualify. And although I worked hard doing admin for my husband Joe’s vehicle service centre, there was no way I could afford £12,000 to go private. So I talked to Joe about going abroad for surgery and he agreed it was worth looking into.