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"My 45st mum paid for my gastric band at 13!’

Tipping the scales at 45st, Sharon Mevsimler made headlines as Britain’s fattest woman. Despite gorging on crisps and chocolate, she spent years begging for slimming surgery on the NHS, which has seen a ten-fold increase in weight-loss surgery in England since 2000. Doctors eventually agreed to a gastric bypass, but tragically, the 41-year-old mum of four died of heart failure in July – a year after finally having the £10,000 irreversible op, which helped her shed 23st. The extra strain the surgery placed on her body led to her heart ultimately failing. 

Now, speaking exclusively to Closer, her 16-year-old son Emrah admits he had a gastric band fitted in a bid to slim when he was just 13 – making him the youngest person in Britain to have had the procedure.

“I was frightened I’d end up like Mum, so I begged her to let me have the procedure,”

Emrah recalls. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Shockingly, Emrah weighed 14st when he was 13 – almost double the average weight for that age. But the 5ft 6 schoolboy admits he still wasn’t considered fat enough to have the operation on the NHS. He was also too young to have it legally performed in the UK, so Sharon paid £3,000 for him to have it done privately abroad.

Incredibly, Emrah became the fourth member of his family to have a “quick fix” op. Sharon’s mum, Ann Hassan, 62, and brother, Mustie Hassan, 38, had already had gastric bands fitted.

Speaking from his home in Chelmsford, Essex, Emrah, who now weighs a healthier 11st 7lbs, explains: “I was bullied at school for being fat. The other kids knew about my mum and said I was going to end up like her. When my nan and uncle both lost weight after having it done, I decided I wanted it.”

Emrah had begun dieting at 12, when he weighed 12st. He says: “I was being bullied and hated PE, so I tried to cut down my food and weighed myself at Boots each week. It was depressing when I didn’t lose weight, but I never stuck to diets.

“Each day I’d get up at 5am and have cereals and toast and go back to sleep, before waking up later to eat the same for a second breakfast with my family.

“If I was given smaller dinner portions, I’d cry until I was given more food.”

Sharon was bed-bound by the time Emrah was a teenager, and he was terrified he’d end up the same way. He knew Sharon hadn’t started gaining weight until her late teens, so he worried he’d end up even bigger than her.
Emrah, whose three siblings are a normal weight, adds: “I used to spend my pocket money on big bags of sweets, crisps and two or three large chocolate bars, which I’d eat all at once.

“Being fat meant I was often breathless and found the 20-minute walk to school hard.”

Emrah was so desperate to have a gastric band, he wrote his mum a letter, pleading with her to allow him to have the op. He says: “She’d always said I was too young, but when she read the letter she feared I may end up like her and agreed to it.”

It was a major decision though. Vitamin deficiency is a common problem with gastric band patients, and as Emrah was still growing, it could have led to other health problems. He recalls: “My family were worried about the risks, but seeing  how depressed I was, they felt they had no choice.” As the operation can’t be performed on patients under 18 in the UK, Emrah underwent surgery in Belgium. With Sharon too large to go, Emrah’s uncle Mustie went with him.

He adds: “Straight after the op, if I ate too much I’d be sick, and I could only eat liquidised food. But the weight started dropping off, so it was worth it.”

Sharon’s mum Ann has also had weight-loss surgery. She spent £8,500 on her private op in the UK seven years ago. Like her tragic daughter Sharon, who was a normal weight before she had children, she says it was after four pregnancies that her weight spiralled out of control. Ann says: “After I had kids I was always starting diets, but within a couple of months I’d get fed up and any weight I’d lost would pile back on. As I got fatter, I suffered terrible leg pain, back aches and breathlessness”

By 53, 5ft 4 morbidly obese Ann was 23st. It was then she decided to have a gastric band. The op, which she paid for with her savings, reduces food intake by strapping part of the stomach. She says: “Afterwards, the weight dropped off – I lost the first 5st in a few months. When I wanted to lose weight faster, I had the band tightened, making me feel fuller quicker. I’ve had it tightened five or six times and now weigh 12st 7lbs.

“I thought it would be the perfect solution for Sharon, but doctors said at the time that she needed to diet first.”
Inspired by his mum, Ann’s 16st son Mustie decided he wanted the op too in May 2008.

Mustie, who is 5ft 5, and at his heaviest had a BMI of 37.4 (a BMI over 30 is in the obese category), says: “At 20, my weight peaked at 14st. I’d work out and lose 2st, but as soon as I stopped exercising it crept back on. Eventually it went up to 16st.”

In 2007, bar manager Mustie went to Belgium for a private consultation for a gastric band. Shockingly, he admits he “hoped it would be easier than dieting.” He adds: “If I’d gone to the NHS they would’ve told me to diet, so I didn’t bother.”

Since his £3,000 op, paid for from profit he made on a property sale, Mustie has gone down to 12st.
It was three months later that Emrah followed suit. Emrah, who’s now 16 and living with Ann, is convinced without the op he’d now weigh at least 20st.

He admits: “Now I don’t have to worry about controlling what I eat – the band does it for me. I know without it, I’d be seriously obese now. I just wish mum could have had it sooner so it could’ve saved her too.

“She was so proud of me. She just wanted me to be happy and healthy. I miss her. Mum lost her life, but she saved mine.”

Dr Sarah Jarvis says: “Gastric bands can cause infection and vitamin deficiency, which can be particularly dangerous for developing teens.

“Diet and exercise is by far the best option and there are plenty of free services to help teens who are having difficulties losing weight this way” n

By Natalie Corp

What are your thoughts on the Gastric bands?