A mother-of-two who lost nearly seven stone naturally but was left with a huge apron of flabby skin has been told she can’t have a tummy tuck on the NHS to remove it.
At her biggest, Gemma Tremain-Bland, 32, from Bedworth, tipped the scales at 18 stone, and needed a 42GG bra to support her huge bust.
Wanting to slim down for her family, the Warwickshire mother chose not to take diet pills or have a gastric band fitted and instead lost weight purely by switching to a vegan diet and doing yoga every day.
She’s now a svelte 11.5 stone and a size 12 to 14 but has been left with a lot of loose skin from when she was much larger.
But Gemma, who can’t afford to have the flab removed privately, has now been told she can’t have a tummy tuck to take away the skin on the NHS because she wasn’t fat enough before her weight loss.
Gemma has been left with a huge flap of loose skin after losing nearly seven stone over the years – but she can’t afford a private operation to remove it
Gemma was 18 stone at her biggest seven years ago after she had her second child, Miley
Gemma wanted to slim down after realising the toll obesity was taking on her family life with husband Alan, 41, and children Miley, seven, and Noah, eight.
She managed to lose 6.5 stone and shrank down to a 36E bra size.
But Gemma was still left with another hurdle to get through – tackling the swathes of loose skin which surrounded her belly.
Despite being much slimmer now, Gemma still feels unable to wear tight-fitting clothes, and her handfuls of flab even push her up a dress size.
Gemma managed to lose seven stone and slim down to 11.5 stone but she has been left with excess skin around her middle which means she is a dress size larger than she really is
Gemma now does a daily meditation and yoga practice which she says has helped her lose weight
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 was told in July by a surgeon that she had not been fat enough to qualify for the operation.
Gemma, who first lost the weight six years ago, 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.’
Gemma, 32, pictured with husband Alan, 41, after her dramatic weight loss
Gemma pictured before her weight loss with son Noah. At her biggest, she weighed 18 stone
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.
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.
She became a vegan, and started doing meditation and yoga every day.
Even with the help of daily meditation and yoga she was doing, Gemma could not come to terms with the way her body looked as she suffers from uncomfortable sweat rashes as well as bruising around her hip bones from the excess skin.
Unable to afford the cosmetic surgery privately, which costs about £5,500, Gemma was at a loss for how to get rid of the excess skin.
Gemma now practises yoga and has even taught daughter Miley to meditate with her
With only husband 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.
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.
Gemma battled eating disorders throughout her youth as she tried but failed to lose weight
Gemma now does yoga which means she is super flexible and strong and she thanks the exercise for helping her to lose the weight
‘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.’