Staple diet

A life of misery drastically changed by keyhole surgery, more than 100 stone in weight lost, a world record achieved and now a TV documentary on Discovery Home and Health to be shown on Tuesday. The Thorne family - seven of whom have lost radical quantities of weight following stomach-stapling - has tackled obesity both publicly and radically. Shaun Shackleton catches up with two members who are happy to have lived to tell the tale THE two men sitting opposite are no strangers to me. They are brothers-in-law to my aunt. I have shared many family occasions with them and years ago, the three of us worked for the same builders' merchant.

On the other hand, they are both very different from the men I used to know: John is 23 stone different and Martyn 20.

After being unable to put pressure on his knee and told that surgery was impossible due to his weight - at 35 stone, it was feared that he would not survive the anaesthetic - Martyn was the first to undergo a life-changing form of surgery: stomach stapling.

Performed in Guernsey by Medical Specialist Group surgeon Michael van den Bossche, who is only one of a handful of professionals who can perform this delicate keyhole surgery, the operation reduces the size of the stomach and small intestine so that food is fast-tracked into the bowel and the body doesn't absorb as many calories.

'People asked me if I was offended that Mr van den Bossche had approached me and suggested that I have my stomach stapled,' says Martyn.

'But I was just pleased that someone cared.'

John had also been advised by his doctor to lose weight, but he'd been told more bluntly.

'I was suffering blackouts, I had diabetes and thrombosis. My doctor said I only had one year to live.

'I would never have gone for the stapling off my own bat, but when I saw how well Martyn was doing I thought "it's do or die". Mr van den Bossche has given me my life back.'

But the operation is a potentially fatal one. One in every hundred patients die following surgery from staples coming loose and leading to poisoning, or from total heart failure - although no one has died under the care of Mr van den Bossche.

'There is a big risk,' says the surgeon. 'We can have big complications. One patient in every hundred can or will die. However, I think the risk is overrated. I think it is a lot safer. I think the true mortality rate is less than one per cent.'

'Many people believe the process is a quick and easy fix,' says Martyn. 'But it's not. We had to work hard before we were even considered for the op.' To curb his appetite, Martyn had a balloon placed in his stomach for six months before surgery and John lost 12 stone by drinking two cups of what he described as 'mixture' and eight pints of water daily. 'It's like Complan,' he says. 'Only you're on the toilet all day.' But during this time no counselling was offered. 'Nothing.' says Martyn. 'I was told to look up the operation in the library and to find out more about it on the Internet - I ordered a book by an American lady - so I had to work through it myself.'

After a year of national media interest and appearing on Channel 4's Richard and Judy, John and Martyn, along with other family members, are about to feature in a documentary about their former obesity, their operations and the resulting weight loss.Made by Channel Island company Spike Productions, it has been described as a 'fascinating insight into the lives of a truly extraordinary family'. Former Watchdog presenter and executive producer Samantha Oakley says of working with the family: 'Before making the film, I think we all thought this operation was a quick fix for people who can't be bothered to lose weight by diet and exercise. Having seen what this family has been through - the constant spiral of never losing weight, the pain and discomfort after the operation, the inability to ever eat normally again, plus the risk of dying as a result of complications - we all feel differently now.'

Controversially, the film also features footage of John's son, Scott, undergoing surgery. At 17 and weighing

22 1/2 stone, Scott was the youngest person in Britain to have his stomach stapled - according to UK medical guidelines, patients should be over 18.

But Martyn says: 'If I'd been offered the chance to have had this operation when I was Scott's age, I would've jumped at the chance.' Since the operation in June, Scott has lost six stone. From being an introspective teenager who once said, 'When I'm on my computer I can chat to people online and nobody knows what I look like', his confidence and self-esteem have grown so that now he has developed the skills he once hid behind to take a course in art and design at the College of Further Education.

I wonder how the brothers have coped with all this media attention. When I worked with them, they were fiercely private men. 'Richard and Judy were great,' says John. 'She's nice but no sooner had she asked you a question than he'd butt in and answer it for you.' Martyn agrees. 'We were in the green room with champagne and nibbles and Carol Vorderman was there - she's nice, very genuine. But outside we saw this limo pull up and bodyguards everywhere. It was Kevin Costner. He was in for a private interview. We never got to meet him.'

But following the screening of the documentary on Tuesday, John and Martyn are calling a halt to media interviews.

John says: 'All these things we've done, we haven't been paid a penny for. With Richard and Judy we got put up in a hotel, but that's about it. Scott got £500 from Take a Break magazine and me and Martyn have been interviewed by the Sunday Mirror.'

But, they stress, they're not doing it for the money. What they really want to put across is that if you have reached rock bottom, there is an alternative. 'If it can work for us,' says Martyn, 'it can work for anyone. It's not easy. It's hard work. But we are living proof.'

When I worked with them, their weight was never mentioned by any of the lads. Everyone seemed to think that if they were happy to live in such a way, then why should anyone else think otherwise? Of course, there were a few idiots with snide comments who believed in the myth of the 'happy and cowardly fat man' or those who were ignorant of John and Martyn's potential rage, but they were few and far between.

'Yeah,' remembers Martyn. 'I always believed it was better to be fat and happy than thin and miserable.' John says: 'No one said anything to us because we were all mates.' I reminded them that when the 'bun wagon' visited the wood yard where we worked, they would order several pasties, sausage rolls, crisps, Danish pastries and two Diet Cokes and consume them in a garden shed in the corner of the mill.

'I knew you would mention that' laughs Martyn. 'But those days have changed. Because of the op, I can't even look at a Chinese meal without feeling sick. And you know what I was like about my Chinese.' Likewise, John is now off certain foods. 'I can't touch anything from the chippie,' he says.

But the surgery has also brought other changes for the brothers. After seven years' unemployment, John applied for a job at the PEH in the incinerator department. 'I didn't think I'd stand a cat in hell's chance,' he says. 'But I filled the forms in and handed them in.'

He had the interview and three days later he got the job. 'I never thought I'd work again,' he admits.

Similarly, Martyn's ambition was to ride his bike on the Rock to Rocque charity event. 'Every year I've watched my daughters do it and I've followed behind in my car. I always promised them that I'd do it with them.' The documentary shows him doing just that.

'Another great thing is going into Town and actually buying clothes off the peg,' says John. Martyn agrees. 'I sometimes catch a reflection of myself in a shop window and think "Nah, that's not me!".'

Once, on holiday in Tenerife, a reminder of his past self came back to haunt him. 'We were walking through a hall of mirrors when my daughter started laughing. "That's what you used to look like, Dad," she said. And you know, it was - exactly.'

'Being able to have a bath or a shower is great,' says John, 'and getting behind the wheel of a car. At my worst, my wife, Sue, had to drive me to the doctor and I'd have to go in the back. Also, walking is my thing now. I've seen parts of Guernsey I didn't even know existed.'

The only permanent reminders of the past are a photograph Martyn has of himself from five years ago and a couple of items of outsize clothing. But what does the future hold?

'A tummy tuck,' says Martyn - the operation sorts out the fat but the stretched skin remains. 'I wanted to do the bike thing and I achieved that, but I want to walk down the beach in just a pair of shorts. I can still go on the beach and go for a swim but I have to wear a tee shirt and I don't want to.'

And John? 'I'm just looking forward to getting back to normal. All this media attention and being filmed 24/7 is not for me. I like walking down the Bridge with Sue and saying hello to someone and them not recognising me and then shouting, "Ignorant!". They recognise the voice.'

John and Martyn Thorne are now looking forward to a future that was once either bleak or non-existent and along with other members of this extraordinary family they are just grateful to have been given back not just their self-esteem and confidence but also their life.

The experiential learning they have both been through via this life-changing process has altered them irrevocably - all for the better. They seem even closer as brothers than they did in the old days. 'People always used to recognise us for all the wrong reasons,' says Martyn. 'Now we have something positive in common instead of something negative.'

*The documentary, which was produced by former Channel Television presenter Warren Mauger and directed by Liam Leguillou, will be shown on the Discovery Home and Health Channel on Tuesday at 10pm.