INCREDIBLE TRANSFORMATION
Maisie Smith’s nip/tuck abroad left her in agony – and wondering if she’d survive…
After leaving school, Maisie Smith began putting on weight. But it was after having her children that her weight shot up and she ended up with low self-confidence. At 18st, she wanted a permanent weight-loss solution, but when her GP told her that she wasn’t big enough to qualify for surgery on the NHS, she looked into getting the work done privately – eventually travelling to Turkey for a gastric sleeve operation.
The drastic drop in weight that followed left Maisie, 31, from Portsmouth, with loose skin and a flatter chest, so she returned to Turkey a year later for the “Mummy Makeover” package, which consisted of a tummy tuck, liposuction, breast implants and a bum lift.
This time, however, she was left in such pain that she feared for her life. But shockingly, she now says she has no regrets and is thrilled with her new look. Maisie says, “Lying in my hospital bed after surgery, it felt like the worst thing I’d ever done. I honestly thought I might die. But now I’m so glad I did it. I love my new body and look in the mirror and smile. It was worth the pain.”
UNHAPPINESS
Maisie’s unhappiness about her weight started in her teens. “I was always obsessed with food,” she admits. “Growing up, I’d regularly polish off tea at home, then head up the road to my nan’s and claim I hadn’t eaten so she’d give me a second meal.
“As an active kid, I got away with the extra calories. But once I left school, the weight started to pile on. After having my son, Preslie, when I was 19, I ballooned to 17st and a size 18.”
Over the next few years Maisie tried various diets, but always regained any weight she lost. She says, “When I asked my GP for help, I just got told to keep a food diary or offered anti-depressants. I didn’t know what to do.”
Aged 26, Maisie managed to lose 6st through running and intermittent fasting. But then she met someone and quickly fell pregnant with twins, Bunnie and Bertie.
“Looking after twins is relentless,” she says. “I relied on family-sized chocolate bars to get through the night feeds. Then, as the twins grew, my relationship with their dad started to struggle and I began comfort eating too, gorging on takeaways.”
By the time the twins turned two, Maisie, who is 5ft 7, had hit 18st. “My knees cracked when I climbed the stairs and my back constantly ached,” she says. “I knew another diet would work temporarily – but this time I wanted a permanent weight-loss solution.”
That was when she approached her GP about a gastr
