Housebound By 20 Litres Of Fat!

A MOM is pleading for strangers to fund ife-changing surgery.

KATIE BAKER, 31, unknowingly developed lipoedema which causes an abnormal build-up of fat cells in the legs – when she was 13 and it worsened during her two pregnancies. Katie, from Ontario, Canada, thought she was just ‘fat’, but despite changing her diet and undergoing a gastric bypass her legs continued to balloon and now weigh an estimated combined weight of 20kg. The former chef says she was dismissed by doctors for almost two decades as medics believed it was merely ‘swelling’ until September last year.

“I have spent most of my life feeling guilty and blaming myself for my legs – I thought I was ruining my own life by being fat,” she says. “I felt relieved when I was diagnosed. I had read about lipoedema before online, but I thought it seemed too good to be true as I’d always blamed myself. I didn’t understand how someone can be fat without it being their own fault.”