VOTE: Worthing woman's weight loss trauma
EVERY time Caroline Marshall looks in the mirror, she gets a very visual reminder of the person she used to be.
Saggy, excess skin hangs from the 28-year-old's petite frame – a leftover from when Caroline used to be heavily overweight at 25 stone.
Having spent two years working hard in the gym and eating better, Caroline now weighs 11 and a half stone, but she still feels depressed about her body.
She is desperate to have an operation to have all the saggy skin removed from her arms, stomach, thighs and chin, but NHS West Sussex has refused to fund the procedure.
Caroline, who lives in Belsize Road, Worthing, said: "It really upsets me. It makes me depressed and I just feel like I want to cut it off myself or else hide away.
"I want to feel confident, but with this skin it's like living in the past as every time I look in the mirror I still see myself as a bigger person.
"I feel like I can't move on until this skin is gone."
Funding rejected
Caroline's case was submitted to NHS West Sussex's funding panel by her consultant, accompanied by letters from psychiatrists stating why she needed the surgery, but it was rejected.
She and her family appealed the decision, but again, funding for the surgery was denied.
Caroline suffers from mild brain damage, so can struggle to understand why, despite all her hard work, she still hasn't got a body she feels confident about.
Now she is slimmer, she has also started to suffer from incontinence, which Julie believes may be down to the excess, overhanging skin.
Details of this could not be submitted in her application for funding for the surgery, as Caroline still needs to have tests to determine the cause.
Response
A spokeswoman from NHS West Sussex, said: "We recognise patients applying for individual funding are in extremely difficult positions and are coming to us seeking a possible solution.
"It is our job to help with these solutions but we must do this by reviewing all the available evidence very carefully and with expert medical judgement."
To read the full story, see the Thursday, July 22 edition of the Worthing Herald - on sale now.
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Weather for Worthing
Tuesday 29 May 2012
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