Post by Patrick on Jun 14, 2009 9:00:08 GMT
This is Sesley's fault 
She linked to a story in The Mirror and there's no end of weird and wonderful tales on there!
A 10-year-old girl who weighs 121/2 stone has been told by doctors: “diet or die”.
Brooke Walker is hooked on junk food and already weighs more than Britain’s fattest teenager did at the same age.
She’s been warned by GPs that they can do no more for her – and has now become the youngest child to to be checked into children’s “fat camp” Wellspring UK.
Next month, in a bid to turn her life around, she will begin therapy and a healthy eating and exercise regime.
Brooke, who’s too large for girls’ clothes and has to wear boys’ outfits, has been bullied all her life.
She stays indoors much of the time to escape the taunts and, heartbreakingly, tells of how she cries when she sees her reflection.
“When I look in the mirror I feel sad,” she says. “Doctors have told me that unless I lose weight and exercise I will be very, very sick when I grow up.
“I’ve tried really hard to do as the doctors say. But every time I play outside, people stop and stare and call me ‘fatso’. I end up crying in my room.”
Health experts have described Brooke’s case as one of the most alarming they’ve seen. She’s 4ft 9ins and weighs a stone and a half more than the UK’s fattest teen Georgia Davis – who hit 33 stone at 15 years old – did when she was 10.
Brooke’s weight rocketed when she developed a love of takeaways and fatty junk food.
Her typical daily intake used to consist of crisps, chocolates, chips, pizza and fizzy drinks.
Although she cut out the junk food two and a half years ago and is now eating more healthily, she’s still eating too much.
At its worst her calorie intake was 6,000 a day, six times the recommended safe limit, and her weight is still more than double what it should be for a girl of her age.
Brooke’s mum Stacey, 24, says she accepts the blame for what happened to her daughter.
Brooke’s twin sisters Hannah and Aimee, six, are a perfectly healthy weight but Stacey, a busy single mum, admits Brooke suffered from being dished up convenience food in her early years.
“I was 14 years old when I had Brooke,” Stacey says. “I was young and naive and I had no clue about what a healthy meal was when I started giving Brooke her dinners.
“Everything was always deep-fried or from the takeaway and Brooke became addicted to fast food.
“If she did not have the food she wanted there would be terrible tantrums. I found it tough to deal with that. So I would go to the takeaway and buy her stuff like pizza and give her fried food for dinner.
“Her favourite tea was chips in gravy covered with cheese from the fish and chip shop.
“I let her have the food I thought made her happy. But I didn‘t realise the damage I was doing.”
Things became even worse when Stacey had the twins.
“Brooke started to take food to her room,” she said. “I would find packets of crisps, sweets and chocolate. But with two young babies I didn‘t have time to deal with the problem.
“I know this is my fault but I’m trying to put it right now. I’m petrified Brooke is going to die unless she gets urgent help.”
The full truth about Brooke’s weight problem was made clear in February in a letter from her local GP.
It said she had an “extremely serious problem” and that her weight had “gone off the scale”.
Brooke is classed as morbidly obese – and her health has deteriorated rapidly over the last year.
Doctors have already told her she is likely to develop heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, and her severe asthma and circulation problems mean she can’t take part in normal activities such as school sports.
When she goes to sleep each night her face turns grey because she struggles to breathe.
Brooke, from Belfast, can’t play outside because of the bullying, which at one point got so bad she developed alopecia from the stress and lost most of her hair.
“I have one or two friends at school who stick up for me,” she says. “But most of the children call me names.
“Eating food makes me feel happy and stops me from being sad all the time.
“I eat because I am bored because I can’t go outside.”
Brooke will spend six weeks at the Wellspring camp (www.wellspringcamp.co.uk) – which normally only takes children aged 11 and over.
In the first seven days she won’t be able to phone home, but she’s determined to succeed.
“I can’t wait to go,” she says. “I am not scared of going away. My one wish is to lose weight and look like other girls. I am tired of being called fatty and want it to end.
“I want the bullying to stop and to have friends. I just want to wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and not feel sad any more.”
She linked to a story in The Mirror and there's no end of weird and wonderful tales on there!A 10-year-old girl who weighs 121/2 stone has been told by doctors: “diet or die”.
Brooke Walker is hooked on junk food and already weighs more than Britain’s fattest teenager did at the same age.
She’s been warned by GPs that they can do no more for her – and has now become the youngest child to to be checked into children’s “fat camp” Wellspring UK.
Next month, in a bid to turn her life around, she will begin therapy and a healthy eating and exercise regime.
Brooke, who’s too large for girls’ clothes and has to wear boys’ outfits, has been bullied all her life.
She stays indoors much of the time to escape the taunts and, heartbreakingly, tells of how she cries when she sees her reflection.
“When I look in the mirror I feel sad,” she says. “Doctors have told me that unless I lose weight and exercise I will be very, very sick when I grow up.
“I’ve tried really hard to do as the doctors say. But every time I play outside, people stop and stare and call me ‘fatso’. I end up crying in my room.”
Health experts have described Brooke’s case as one of the most alarming they’ve seen. She’s 4ft 9ins and weighs a stone and a half more than the UK’s fattest teen Georgia Davis – who hit 33 stone at 15 years old – did when she was 10.
Brooke’s weight rocketed when she developed a love of takeaways and fatty junk food.
Her typical daily intake used to consist of crisps, chocolates, chips, pizza and fizzy drinks.
Although she cut out the junk food two and a half years ago and is now eating more healthily, she’s still eating too much.
At its worst her calorie intake was 6,000 a day, six times the recommended safe limit, and her weight is still more than double what it should be for a girl of her age.
Brooke’s mum Stacey, 24, says she accepts the blame for what happened to her daughter.
Brooke’s twin sisters Hannah and Aimee, six, are a perfectly healthy weight but Stacey, a busy single mum, admits Brooke suffered from being dished up convenience food in her early years.
“I was 14 years old when I had Brooke,” Stacey says. “I was young and naive and I had no clue about what a healthy meal was when I started giving Brooke her dinners.
“Everything was always deep-fried or from the takeaway and Brooke became addicted to fast food.
“If she did not have the food she wanted there would be terrible tantrums. I found it tough to deal with that. So I would go to the takeaway and buy her stuff like pizza and give her fried food for dinner.
“Her favourite tea was chips in gravy covered with cheese from the fish and chip shop.
“I let her have the food I thought made her happy. But I didn‘t realise the damage I was doing.”
Things became even worse when Stacey had the twins.
“Brooke started to take food to her room,” she said. “I would find packets of crisps, sweets and chocolate. But with two young babies I didn‘t have time to deal with the problem.
“I know this is my fault but I’m trying to put it right now. I’m petrified Brooke is going to die unless she gets urgent help.”
The full truth about Brooke’s weight problem was made clear in February in a letter from her local GP.
It said she had an “extremely serious problem” and that her weight had “gone off the scale”.
Brooke is classed as morbidly obese – and her health has deteriorated rapidly over the last year.
Doctors have already told her she is likely to develop heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, and her severe asthma and circulation problems mean she can’t take part in normal activities such as school sports.
When she goes to sleep each night her face turns grey because she struggles to breathe.
Brooke, from Belfast, can’t play outside because of the bullying, which at one point got so bad she developed alopecia from the stress and lost most of her hair.
“I have one or two friends at school who stick up for me,” she says. “But most of the children call me names.
“Eating food makes me feel happy and stops me from being sad all the time.
“I eat because I am bored because I can’t go outside.”
Brooke will spend six weeks at the Wellspring camp (www.wellspringcamp.co.uk) – which normally only takes children aged 11 and over.
In the first seven days she won’t be able to phone home, but she’s determined to succeed.
“I can’t wait to go,” she says. “I am not scared of going away. My one wish is to lose weight and look like other girls. I am tired of being called fatty and want it to end.
“I want the bullying to stop and to have friends. I just want to wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and not feel sad any more.”
A.P.P.S
S C 
