Too fat for knee surgery, so I gave fast food diet the elbow

Barely able to walk and crippled with pain, Janet Paton wanted the NHS to fork out for an expensive knee replacement operation to put her back on her feet.

But she weighed 20st 10lb – and was rebuffed by her GP, who refused to refer her to a specialist saying she was dangerously obese and could easily die on the operating table.

Brought to her senses by the grim warning Ms Paton, 38, began to fight the flab with a vengeance – walking three miles a day with the family dog and swapping her chocolate and fast food diet for a healthy calorie-controlled eating regime.

The mother-of-one, from Barnsley, now weighs 11 stone and has been told she doesn’t need the knee operation – which would have cost the NHS about 20,000.

Ms Paton, who showed off her size 12 figure yesterday, said: “I was in tears after the GP refused to help me, saying I was too obese to have the operation on my knees.

“It seemed such a terrible thing to say when I was suffering so much pain, and struggling to walk any distance at all...but I realise now that the doctor was really being cruel to be kind, and it’s saved the NHS a lot of money in the long run.”

Ms Paton, who has a 16-year-old daughter, admits that her passion for chocolate and chips cost her dearly over the years.

“I’ve never been able to resist chocolate, and I’d polish off a big family bar every day, as well as three or four packets of crisps, and lots of chips with everything.

“I realise now it wasn’t doing me any good, but that’s the way I lived for years and years, putting away lots of burgers, pizzas, chocolate and chips, and piling on the pounds all the time.”

Ms Paton had ballooned to a size 26 when her knees started playing up.

She added: “It got to the stage where I could barely a walk a 100 yards or so. It was agony wherever I went, and I really thought surgery was the only answer.

“I couldn’t believe it when the doctor said I couldn’t have the operation, and started going on about me being too obese to come through the anaesthetic in one piece.

“I’ll never forget her looking over her desk, and saying ‘don’t you think it’s about time you cut down on your eating and started taking some exercise?’

“I felt really insulted and offended at the time, but I’m grateful when I look in the mirror now because what she said changed my life, and gave me a chance to look things afresh.

“As for my knees, they’re perfect .”

Her sister Elizabeth, 39, is full of praise for Ms Paton.

She said: “She’s shown fantastic willpower – it’s incredible when you look at the old photos, and realise she’s lost almost half her body weight.

“I remember her coming home from the doctor’s surgery in tears when they wouldn’t do the operation. It seemed so awful at the time, but it just gave her the inspiration to change her life completely.”

Tutor Michelle Bucknall – who helped formulate Ms Paton’s diet at Slimming World – said: “Knee operations don’t come cheap – and I’m really thrilled that we’ve been able to save the NHS a fair amount of money, and help Janet at the same time.”

nWeight-loss diets can reverse life-threatening artery damage in obese individuals, a study in Israel has shown. Low-carbohydrate “Atkins”-style diets, low fat and Mediterranean diets were equally effective, scientists found.