The former 'world's fattest man' has come out to speak candidly about his experiences of weighing 70 stone and being predicted to die before 40.
Paul Mason has lived well over what he was expected to, now aged 64, but the man is now sending a message to others who could go through the same health struggles.
Even though he’s back at 36 stone and bedridden, Paul has one thing he wants to get off his chest.
After gaining fame in The World’s Fattest Man documentary, which saw him weigh 70 stone and eat 20,000 calories per day, his shock weight loss didn’t stop him from gaining some of it back.
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His gastric bypass helped him to remove tens of stone, but he was still left with the extra skin, which thankfully were later removed with two surgeries which took him to 19 stone.
After meeting his girlfriend in 2014 and moving to the US to live with her, the relationship soon fell apart, which took him to a bad place mentally and physically.
Paul moved back to the UK and in 2021, fell seriously ill during the pandemic and was hospitalised, but not before he was filmed by those on the street as he was hauled out of his home by firefighters using a tarpaulin.
Now, he wants to use his voice for good.
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Speaking to The Mirror for a new interview, he said: “A doctor once told me I would be lucky to make 40 and now here I am, nearly a pensioner.
"I may not walk again now but I am at one with that. I just want to use my time to help others and make sure they don’t make the same mistakes I did.”
Talking about his bad health in 2021, he shared: “I became unwell. I was gaining a lot of fluid but could not get rid of it. It came out of the blue. It got so bad I could not breathe and they sent a paramedic who insisted I go to hospital.
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"The problem was the lift was broken so they had to get two teams of fire service guys to carry me out down the stairs in the big slings they use. It was awful – there were people outside taking pictures.”
After being hospitalised for 18 months, Paul said it ruined his weight-loss progress and was a ‘real kick in the teeth’.
He said: “I did not realise how unwell I was at that stage. My kidneys had stopped working properly but once they got me on the proper medication, they drained the fluid, and I lost six stone in two or three days.”
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But now he refuses to get to that point again.
After being scared by the death of Britain’s fattest man, Jason Holton, Paul shared how he tried to reach out to help him with his weight but he was too late.
He added: “I would tell any young person reading this to not be afraid to ask for help. I would also tell them to think about the future of their body.
"The way you are going to make your body means you will never get it back again. No amount of surgery you have or anything can give you back what you had when you put that many calories in your body – that’s what you’ve got to think of.”
Britt Jones