Wednesday, April 21, 2010
All-pubs ban girl ‘is rotten’ By ANDREW PARKER
A GIRL yob banned from buying alcohol anywhere was branded “all that is despicable and rotten in society” by a judge yesterday. Laura Hall, 20, was in court on ANOTHER drunkenness charge — days after the “booze Asbo”. District judge Bruce Morgan heard she turned on cops after being thrown out of a club. Hall has 26 boozerelated offences including assault, attacking police and criminal damage. The judge warned her: “You are going to drink yourself to death.” Last week Hall, of Bromsgrove, Worcs, was the first person ever banned from buying or drinking booze anywhere. It exiles her from every bar and off-licence for two years. Yesterday she was fined £75 plus £85 costs for being drunk and disorderly in Redditch.
SNAP DECISION
A water aerobics class was quickly scrapped due to a CROCODILE in the pool in Darwin, Australia.
2G
FATTEST TEENAGER IN
BRITAIN GOES HOME...AND HAS RELAPSE
By
SHARON HENDRY
HEAVY PRICE TO PAY . . . we track Georgia’s progression, left, with old trousers after dieting, far left, and with her mum Lesley, below right
in Aberdare
A STRONG wind is blowing over the Welsh mountains and Georgia Davis is struggling to make her newly highlighted hair look presentable.
But the 17-year-old student knows that a far more startling and lifethreatening change to her appearance is what is really attracting attention.
For after famously slimming down by more than 14st just nine months ago, the girl once dubbed Britain’s fattest teenager has since piled back on nearly 11st. Her face is etched with sadness as she says: “Please help me, someone. I know this is my fault but it’s out of control.” She adds: “This time last year I weighed 18st 4lb. Now I am just 5lb off 29st — and that’s just 4st off my original weight.” In 2008 Georgia was thought to be the nation’s heaviest teen when The Sun revealed she weighed 33st at the age of just 15. She was given an ultimatum by health professionals — lose weight or die. It was then that she spent a year at the £3,600-amonth Wellspring Academy in North Carolina, in the US, on a special scholarship programme. She returned home to Aberdare in South BIG STORY Wales as a more . . . Sun from svelte and confi- August, 2008 dent young woman. But her eating soon spiralled out of control once again. Now she says: “It was my choice to return to my family and not continue my treatment in the US. But now I know it was like putting a heroin addict back in a chemist shop.” After returning to her parents’ three-bed semi last June, Georgia divided her time between studying childcare at college and caring for her mum Lesley, 55, who suffers from a heart condition, and 70-year-old stepdad Arthur, who is battling lung cancer. She says: “I knew it was going to be hard when I came back but it was a lot harder than I ever imagined. Eating in the US was in a controlled environment and everything was put on a plate for me. But back here I quickly started to drift off the plan. “It was hard to find the same foods at the supermarket in Aberdare. Low-fat buffalo meat, a big part of the eating plan at Wellspring, had to be ordered from a farm in Scotland and was expensive. “Around eight weeks after returning from camp I drifted off the plan. I felt really alone. My parents weren’t doing it with me at home and my friends weren’t doing it at college so there was no motivation to continue. “I started reverting to my old ways. I wouldn’t eat for half a day then start bingeing into the night. I knew things were getting out of control but I didn’t want to return to the US because I missed my family too much and I was desperate to go
myView By CAROL COOPER Sun Doctor
to college and be a normal teenager.” Georgia blames the trauma of losing her biological dad in early childhood for sparking a junk food addiction that first led her to balloon to a shocking size 38 and develop lifethreatening type 2 diabetes. Her figure has now yo-yoed back to 50-55-59 from the more trim 40-36-38 she measured last June. Back then she delighted in buying colourful and more modern size-24 clothes. Today she is back in black, shapeless size 30 tracksuit bottoms and T-shirts as a result
of her disastrous new diet. She says: “When I walk past Greggs bakery it’s as if a siren is calling me in. I can’t resist the sweet meat in the sausage rolls. I’ve been eating five or six a day.
Crisps “I’ve also been eating lots of the sandwiches laden with mayonnaise, and chicken pasties.” Georgia also admits to downing litre bottles of Coke and stuffing herself with butterladen cheese toasties, crisps and fish and chips. She adds: “I try
to be good and go to Subway instead of Greggs but it’s so hard to resist. I feel so disappointed and annoyed at myself. I have cried a couple of times when I glimpse my body in the mirror but mostly I feel angry. “I know I have no one to blame except myself but I don’t know how to change things. I would really like some help. My addiction to food is no different to drugs or alcohol. Those people get help from the NHS.” Before her return to the UK, Georgia’s local health authority assured her it would monitor her progress closely. Linda Williams,
who chaired a panel that discussed her case last year, wrote: “We will work very closely to assess and meet her healthcare needs in order to help her maintain her excellent progress.” The help did not materialise. Georgia says: “A nurse visited me once and suggested gym membership. I booked an appointment with the GP myself but nothing really came of it. “The only reason I know I am back up near my previous lifethreatening weight is because I weighed myself last week. I’m not even really sure about my diabetes. At Wellspring it
disappeared but it hasn’t been checked recently. “What I really need is proper counselling and someone to help me do exercise. I know people will say I’m just fat and lazy but I try so hard to stop eating and nothing seems to work.”
Support
Wellspring spokesman John Gordon says the door is still open to Georgia if she decides to return. He adds: “While she was tremendously successful at Wellspring Academies, our clinicians were very aware that she had
not made the necessary behavioural changes to succeed on her own back at home. “Georgia needed more time and practice. This is why we offered her continued care at our summer camp in the UK and back at the academy in the autumn going into 2010. “Unfortunately, due to her father’s health and her desire to attend college immediately, she chose to remain home instead of taking advantage of Wellspring’s offers of continued care. Having said that, we will continue to be there to support her.” s.hendry@the-sun.co.uk
SADLY the future looks bleak for Georgia unless she manages to lose a lot of weight – and keep it off. Extreme obesity is life-shortening as it is linked with high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, heart disease and several cancers. Georgia also has type 2 diabetes – which in youngsters is even more likely to cause serious complications than in adults. Losing and regaining weight repeatedly is bad for the metabolism and can damage the heart. To put on this much weight in nine months, I reckon Georgia has eaten at least 400,000 calories more than she needs, some of it in binges. Over-eating to this extent usually suggests deep emotional reasons. But with Wellspring’s help she once managed to get to grips with her eating habits. For her and her family’s sake, I hope she can do it again, this time for good.
Pictures: MARC GIDDINGS
24