- Barry Austin, 46, weighed 65 stone, eating up to 29,000 calories a day
- He now weights 45 stone and has been housebound for three years
- Our resident GP Dr Ellie Cannon visited his specially adapted house
By
Dr Ellie Cannon
17:00 EST, 7 December 2013
|
20:14 EST, 7 December 2013
In his 20s, Barry Austin was on a mission to become Britain’s fattest man. Famously, he consumed up to 29,000 calories a day in his bid to claim the dubious record. He starred in documentaries, had his own magazine column and even appeared in a TV drama opposite Timothy Spall.
Now, aged 46, his goal is simply to survive another year. Almost 65st at his largest, he is now 20st lighter. But Barry is also terribly unwell due to obesity-related illnesses.
He struggles to breathe, battles infections, and regrets his misguided quest for fame. Having worn his astonishing weight as a badge of honour, he now wants his bleak situation to serve as a warning to young people not to overeat.
On a mission: Britain’s fattest man, Barry Austin, 46, has lost 20 stone, but at 45 stone his extreme obesity is still life threatening
Barry’s Facebook page shows him in a boxing ring, surrounded by friends – ‘Barry Austin aiming to be the biggest natural weight loss loser [sic] on earth’ is the title.
‘I’m going to do this,’ he tells me, confidently. ‘I will lose this weight. I’ve put it on, now I’ll lose it. I don’t want surgery. I’m going down the gym. I’m going to teach the kids not to be like me.’
Bold words, but it is clear this will not be a straightforward fight. Most recently, he has been forced to rest due to leg sores, related to the strain that excess fat causes the skin.
Surgery will not be an option for a long time because it would be too dangerous to put someone so large under general anaesthetic.
Despite this, as a doctor, I applaud Barry’s efforts. Obesity is one of the biggest problems modern medicine faces. Today, just a third of adults in Britain are considered to be a healthy weight.
Before he begun his health regime, Barry’s diet would see him eat up for 29,000 calories a day, with the help of his ‘Death Sandwich which contains raw meat, egg, bacon and sausage
Shockingly, a quarter of the
population is obese, the term used when weight becomes so excessive
that it dramatically increases the risk of diseases such as diabetes,
heart disease and cancers.
More
worrying is that one child in ten falls into this category. Although
children from underprivileged backgrounds are twice as likely to be
overweight, they are far from the only ones – thousands of middle-class
youngsters are affected too.
Quite
aside from the personal devastation that serious illness causes
families, the cost to the NHS of treating disease due to fatness is
thought to top £50?billion a year.
Barry
is part of a growing minority who are super-obese, with a body mass
index score (a ratio of height to weight used by doctors) of more than
50. Ambulance services, hospitals and clinics invest millions in special
over-sized equipment and vehicles that can cope with such massive
bodies.
At one point Barry
tells me, with some humour, how on a fateful trip a few years back, a
mountain rescue team had to winch him up because he had fallen and
couldn’t get up. But at a time of budget cuts and financial
belt-tightening across the health services, there is something
particularly depressing about this tale.
Barry’s desire to promote weight loss is to be admired, but my biggest worry, considering the perilous state he is in, is whether it may be too late for him to turn his situation around. A grotesque circus surrounded him while he was munching his way through nine curries in one sitting, and downing 40 pints of beer a night.
Hangers-on cheered
and newspapers published photos as he guzzled quadruple-decker
bacon-and-egg sandwiches, washed down with four litres of cola. One must
ask where the circus will be – and how those who encouraged Barry will
feel – if he doesn’t recover.
On
my way to meet him at his home in Solihull (Barry is housebound, and
has been for almost three years), I browse a few of the articles written
about him in the past two decades. For Barry, a film or photoshoot
became the only reason to make the considerable effort to go out. But he
concedes: ‘TV shows didn’t help me. They put me up in a hotel and said
eat and drink whatever you like. It was like giving a heroin addict
drugs.’
When Barry was younger, he worked as a cab driver and played rugby, but today he can do neither. Back then, friends encouraged him to enter drinking competitions – he always won. His huge appetite led to him becoming a local celebrity.
Today, Barry’s home is a small bungalow. The living room is simply decorated and tidy, and when I notice a couple of boxes of mini-chocolates, he tells me they are ‘for the grandchildren’.
The property has been adapted for him. ‘There are wide doors, and I’ve got a shower with a chair. I also bought myself a metal bed because I’ve broken a few others. But the sofa is a normal one.’ It is a two-seater, which he easily fills himself. ‘My family are all large but I wasn’t even 4?lb when I was born,’ he says at one point. ‘Everyone wanted to feed me and spoil me. They thought it was good to feed Barry.’ Oddly, these are the same lines he has used in numerous interviews.
Barry held the dubious title of Britain’s fattest man until 2004, when Paul Mason, weighing 70st, stole his crown. Mason, 52, underwent a gastric bypass operation in 2010 and lost 48st.
Last year, 58st Keith Martin emerged to tell his story in a documentary, and it is likely there are others carrying this kind of weight.
Yet Barry has remained in the limelight. I find it amazing that he couldn’t see the bleak future he was carving out for himself. It is shocking this was something he chose.
He trots out another pre-prepared quote: ‘I thought I was invincible – we all do when we are younger. That’s why I tell kids now, don’t be like me. Don’t eat chocolate, eat fruit. You know what I want? Simple things. I want to be able to do up my shoes.’
Getting help: Dr Ellie Cannon visits Barry at his home in Solihull where he has been housebound for three years
Barry initially started to lose weight in 2009, and claimed to be sticking to a 1,500-calorie-a-day diet, spurred on by his fiancee Debbie.
But he began to overeat again after the death of his mother, aged 80, last year. She herself was almost 30st, and passed away in the only hospital bed large enough to accommodate her. ‘Her death really affected me. I’ve been very low,’ says Barry.
His weight is now stuck at 45st – not what you would expect from someone on a low-calorie regime. ‘I don’t eat a lot now,’ he says. ‘Today I had a porridge for breakfast and a ham sandwich for lunch, with a mince pie as a treat. Tonight I’ll have chicken breast, a jacket potato and vegetables. Debbie and I got a balti one night last week, which we shared.
‘I used to drink 12 litres of Coke a day, but now I just have two litres of Pepsi Max and I also drink sparkling mineral water – the fizz tricks my brain into thinking it’s pop.’
Debbie has children from a previous relationship, and the couple dote on their seven grandchildren.
With Barry today is his friend Jonny, who says he is making another documentary about Barry, and Don, a personal trainer. Jonny often repeats the lines Barry has already used: ‘He was less than 4?lb when he was born, you know?’
Big lad: Barry weighed seven stone at the age of four
I tell Barry I’m amazed one of the big-brand diet companies hasn’t approached him to help, because it would be a great stunt.
‘They
haven’t,’ he replies. ‘But I did get asked to be in an adult film.’
Thankfully, he turned down that offer. It seems the entourage that once
cheered on his marathon eating session has now been replaced, but the
focus, as ever, is how Barry is tipping the scales.
He goes to the gym three times a week, travelling there in a special taxi adapted for wheelchair-users.
However, no one speaks about what might have compelled a man to eat himself into illness.
‘I’ve been to a therapist and she asked me to draw how I see myself,’ he says.
‘I drew a thin bloke. She said if you ask an anorexic to do that, they draw someone fat. It’s the same problem.’
But he has never pursued further treatment. ‘I’ve wanted to end it all,’ he admits.
‘I’ve been very down, but I don’t feel like that now. I’m going to stop children becoming obese.’
Recently, psychiatrists recognised
overeating and bingeing as a disorder, accounting for 60 per cent of all
eating-disorder diagnoses.
Those affected often suffer depression, and –
unlike Barry – the binges are usually secret. Interestingly, those most
prone are extremely self-critical.
It
seems unsurprising that Barry finds a great deal of affirmation in
fame.
‘Everyone knowing who you are, giving you respect and love, that’s
a nice feeling,’ he says. He also admits that food holds a huge power
over him.
‘After my mother
died, I started eating stupid amounts again. I called up my old friends
and they’d bring me KFC, burgers or curries.
‘Debbie
and I had huge fights because she tried to stop me. They also offered
me cocaine, but I wasn’t interested. Food is my drug. I get a feeling of
happiness when I eat.’
Barry
says the medical profession have washed their hands of him.
‘I can’t
get to my GP, and no one has ever come here,’ he claims. He hasn’t seen a
doctor ‘in years’, and his prescriptions for diabetes and
blood-pressure medication are sent directly to the chemist.
It
is alarming that Barry hasn’t had his heart or kidneys checked. On a
recent occasion when his legs became infected, his family were seriously
concerned. He was delirious with rising fever. ‘The GP just sent a
prescription for antibiotics,’ Debbie says.
There
was no home visit. No one came to monitor for blood poisoning or even
check his pulse, which appals me.
I would expect this as a basic
standard of care for someone who is housebound, but it appears Barry
doesn’t receive this. He pulled through the infection, but has
permanently weeping leg wounds. Debbie claims that district nurses say
she should simply bandage them.
Barry lives within 15 miles of Heartlands Hospital, which has a £10?million new weight-management clinic, pulling in the best dietary, psychological, medical and surgical treatment – but Barry seems almost amazed that such services exist.
While complaining that he has been abandoned by doctors, Barry admits he hasn’t sought help. Instead of medical support, he has a film crew. There are TV commissions in the pipeline, but no GP appointments.
Before I leave, I urge him to seek a referral to a specialist. He seems uninterested, and just says he ‘misses fishing’. He adds: ‘A friend of mine had a kid and was going to ask me to be the godfather, and you know what?’
‘He didn’t want you to be because of your weight,’ I answer correctly, having read the quote before. It seems we’re back in showbiz mode.
Later, there is excited talk of a new mission, to climb Snowdon next year. I truly hopes he gets there.
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hughes_philip,
Doncaster, United Kingdom,
5 minutes ago
It will have been asked many times before but, frankly, it can’t be asked often enough, ‘where do these unemployed people get the money for all the food they eat?’.
guysomewhere,
great libertyland,
6 minutes ago
Pish Posh… its called “curveâ€. Every ladies seem to celebrate it and gentlemen should too
bernie,
romford, New Zealand,
7 minutes ago
I hope this idiot has not been on a benefit these last three years as this condition is self induced.
Fewpeople,
Adelaide, Australia,
7 minutes ago
He better have a job, as it would be disgusting to think the public pay tax, for his food.
phillip,
bristol – somerset,
10 minutes ago
Good old UK, heres a man after fame done this to him self and everyone else picks up the tab for health related issus, home improvements, and seeing half the population can’t control what they put in there bodies our NHS will be screwed in years to come.
irwin,
Gravesend UK, United Kingdom,
43 minutes ago
It is obvious it would not end well.
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