A former March man, now living in Soham, has raised £1,000 of a £5,000 target to have skin removed after he lost 20 stone in weight.
Wayne Shepherd, 40, has received the donations from 57 people in just two weeks after turning to a GoFundMe campaign to finance the surgery.
“I have always been overweight and was bullied very badly as a kid for it which to be honest fuelled my eating problems,” he said.
He said he his weight went to 226.8kg (35st 7lb) and he was on the NHS waiting list for nearly four years, but a year ago finally had a gastric sleeve thanks to the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Portsmouth.
His current weight is now 94.4kg (14st 8lb) as of the 1st august 2023…
“It’s been one hell of a ride with so much hard work but now I have this massive problem of excess skin,” said Wayne.
“I was promised before I had my sleeve done that they would fund and remove the skin for me when we got to that point and now, I am there they won’t fund it.
“This has destroyed me in so many ways. I am more insecure about how I look now than I ever was when I was bigger.
“I cannot look at myself in the mirror with no clothes on, I won’t let others look at me so doing this and putting myself out there for everyone to see is unreal and so damn hard as you can imagine but that’s how much I am willing to do to try and get the help I need.
“As you can see in the picture, I do have a lot of skin in a lot of places, and I know it’s going to cost so much but I need to try and do something because I cannot live the rest of my life looking the way I do.”
He said: “I know I got myself in to this mess by putting the weight on in the first place but it’s not that simple at all. there was so many more factors than just over eating.
“There was emotional eating, it’s an addiction, depression, feeling hungry 24/7, environmental factors, being around feeders, it was a mess, I was a mess and I hold my hands up to that fact.
“I know people will judge me and I do understand that, and I do understand that they will see it all as my own fault so why should I get help or ask for help. All I can say to that is I am human, and I just want to be normal for once in my life.”
He said he is aiming to raise £5000 to have both his arms and breast area sorted “so please help me try to achieve this”.
Before and after for Wayne Shepherd: “I know I got myself in to this mess by putting the weight on in the first place but it’s not that simple at all. there was so many more factors than just over eating.”
