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You are > Home > Wexford man wins battle of the bulge
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Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wexford man wins battle of the bulge
A 25-STONE Wexford man amazingly dropped more than half his bodyweight after doctors warned him he was too fat to sleep at night.
Seamus Saunders, (formerly of Co. Wexford, but who moved to Aberdeen in Scotland), could only catch 45 minutes’ shuteye at night because the rolls of fat around his neck were choking him awake.
The shattered dad-of five couldn’t function during the day and lost his job. Sleep specialists told Seamus (47) he had to shed his 24st 13lb bulk if he wanted a normal life again.
Now, after a gastric bypass, the intensive care nursing auxiliary has lost an incredible 13 stone and is down to just 11st. 10lbs. Seamus said: “I can’t believe how lucky I am. If you can’t sleep, you can’t live. I didn’t sleep for six years. It wrecked my life.
“I was walking round like a zombie unable to think. Now I go to bed and get a whole night of sleep.”
Seamus, who’s 5ft 9in, began piling on weight as a teenager and was already 15 stone when he married at 19.
Following his separation from his wife, he moved to Scotland in 1996, but things only got worse.
Seamus would polish off two 16-inch pizzas and still have room for more. He needed super-sized XXXXL clothes specially imported from America to fit him.
Seamus was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and doctors in Edinburgh identified sleep apnoea caused by his neck fat.
His throat would close up every few seconds cutting off his oxygen supply. Seamus said: “I would jerk awake hundreds of times in a night, I was lucky to get 45 minutes of sleep.
“I got let go from my job. I couldn’t concentrate and wasn’t a reliable timekeeper.” To help him Seamus had a gastric band fitted in 2006 to restrict what he could eat, but it snapped.
He was forced to have a gastric bypass in May 2008, to cut the space in his stomach. This operation was a success. Now Seamus sleeps through the night, his diabetes has improved and he has energy to go cycling and swimming.
He added: “I’m living now for the first time in years.”
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