A mum who lost six stone but was left with a huge apron of flabby skin has been told she can’t have an NHS tummy tuck – because she wasn’t FAT enough.
At her biggest, Gemma Tremain-Bland, 32, tipped the scales at a massive 18 stone, and needed a 42GG bra to support her huge bust.
But after realising the toll obesity was taking on her family life with husband Alan, 41, and children Miley, seven, and Noah, eight, she decided she had to lose weight.
She vetoed over-the-counter diet pills or having a gastric band fitted, and used her will power to slim down, adopting a raw vegan diet and doing yoga every day.
After losing 6.5 stone and shrinking down to a 36E bra size, Gemma was still left with another hurdle to get through – tackling the swathes of loose skin which surrounded her belly.
Despite being a svelte 11.5 stone and a size 12 to 14, Gemma still feels unable to wear tight-fitting clothes, and her handfuls of flab even push her up a dress size.
She avoids swimming pools or situations where people can see the excess skin.
Her hopes were raised when she was told she might be able to have a tummy tuck – or ‘abdominoplasty’ – on the NHS, but she slumped into a depression after being told in July by a surgeon that she had not been fat enough to qualify for the op.
Gemma said: “I feel like I’ve swapped one terrible body for another. There’s nothing in the world that will make the skin shrink back.
“There’s no cream, no magic potion, that will make it right. I want to be able to show off my figure but I still wear baggy clothes to hide all that skin.
“It does affect my confidence – I feel like a fraud when people say ‘you’ve done amazingly well, you look great.’
“They don’t know what I look like behind the clothes.”
As a teenager Gemma struggled with eating disorders brought on by trying to lose weight.
But after the birth of her second child, Miley, the housewife decided she had to take control of her lifestyle, and began her weight loss journey six years ago.
Gemma said: “After I had my daughter I was very very big, and I didn’t want to leave the house.
“I was pretty much a hermit. Eventually I realised I had to change something.”
Initially Gemma starved herself on a crash diet, losing three stone in four months.
But she still felt unhealthy, and realised she had to choose “self-love” over putting her body through more strain.
Every week, Gemma introduced a new healthy change to her diet – from herbs, to blending fruit and vegetables into yummy smoothies.
She bought a juicer and gave up all meat, fish and dairy products and now rarely eats cooked food.
Even with the help of daily meditation and yoga she was doing, Gemma, from Bedworth, Warks, could not come to terms with the way her body looked.
And she suffers from uncomfortable sweat rashes as well as bruising around her hip bones.
Unable to afford the cosmetic surgery privately, costing about £5,500, Gemma was at a loss for how to get rid of the excess skin.
With only hubbie Alan, a bike technician, in work, she never even contemplated a tummy tuck until it was suggested the NHS could carry out the surgery.
Gemma visited her GP in June to confess her anxieties, and was told it was possible the surgery could be performed for free.
She said: “There are mental health implications as much as physical ones. I had to start thinking about how I could help my body heal, not just losing weight.”
Tummy tucks are only performed on the NHS in exceptional circumstances and have to be approved by a health watchdog, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in the local area.
Gemma said: “I went to see a surgeon who said this was perfect for me, I met all the criteria.
“I’d been overweight and I didn’t plan to have more children – but I was outside the guidelines for getting it done on the NHS.
“The guidelines say you have to be 20 stone, and I had been two stone under. My BMI was 36.9, and now it’s more like 23.
“He advised it was down to my GP surgery and said I could appeal a decision, but when I went back I was told it was a flat-out ‘no.'”
She believes people should be encouraged to lose weight naturally by the NHS, and denying tummy tuck surgery it discourages shedding the stones.
Gemma said: “I’ve spoken to a number of people about excess skin and I’ve been brutally honest. They’ve said that it puts them off losing weight.”
A spokesman for the CCG said: “Compared to healthcare interventions which improve health and save lives, the Clinical Commissioning Group considers cosmetic procedures to be of low priority when it comes to allocating limited NHS resources.
“The CCG does recognise that, in certain cases, a cosmetic procedure may be justified to alleviate or improve a physical deformity or to meet a clinical need other than improvement of aesthetic appearance.
“Whilst a number of people develop loose abdominal skin after pregnancy, or as a result of substantial weight loss (whether that is surgical or dietary weight loss), abdominoplasty is not a routinely commissioned procedure.
“However, the CCG will fund the treatment in the event of an Individual Funding Request (IFR) application proving exceptional clinical need.”
