A boy's nightmare of his obesity hell (From Penarth Times)

A boy's nightmare of his obesity hell

DESPITE worries that young teens are starving themselves to look like their favourite celebrity, statistics show a third of children are obese or overweight. One teenager speaks out about how obesity has affected his life.

At the age of nine Chris Bell was trapped by his obesity. He sat alone, forced to endure a daily barrage of insults from his 'friends'.

The memories of those first sneers about his weight still hurt, long after the signs of the physical abuse have gone. It was not until he was 14 that Chris finally began to lose weight and, more importantly, gain confidence.

He now talks with an assurance that makes his parents John and Maralyn smile with relief.

But when Chris recounts his nervousness of the first time he went to a Slimming World class, you get some idea of the intense shyness caused by a childhood of bullying.

Chris, now 15, said: "There was a knot inside me and I couldn't look up. I knew there wouldn't be any boys or men there. But it was like a family straight away and I wanted it to work."

Chris is now desperate to get let other obese and bullied children know they are not alone. When he was about eight or nine a teacher noticed he would sometimes almost slip out of consciousness in class. Tests revealed he was epileptic. Prescribed drugs led to an increased appetite, while at the same time he was unable to play out unsupervised. The weight piled on.

The bullying began in a serious way when Chris was in the final year of junior school. "I would sit alone at mealtimes and in class they would call me names - horrible names I can't tell you. It got violent but that didn't matter as much as the other things. I did get badly hurt once, but, that was the least of it. PE was a nightmare. I stopped going to school as much as possible.

"I couldn't make anyone feel the way I felt, not even the people who made me feel like that."

Chris started going to Slimming World with his sister just under a year ago. Two other men joined when word got out that a teenage boy had the courage to attend. Slimming World instructors always stress they encourage healthy eating, not a strict diet, especially for young people.

Meanwhile, Maralyn and John look on with pride at their articulate son, as he speaks of his experience since shedding two-and-a-half stones.

John, an electrician said: "It's amazing. He's a different lad now. I had to distance myself from him a bit at times, I just couldn't handle it, but now we're very close."

Maralyn remembers the heartache of seeing her child feel so alone.

She admits that she was often guilty of giving Chris high fat snacks and allowing him to sit in his room watching endless videos.

But she says: "When your child is unhappy, and I mean really unhappy, sometimes you'll do anything to make them feel a bit better, even if just for a moment."

Sadly, many children who are seriously overweight and the problem is getting worse. Paul Gately, senior lecturer in exercise and health at Leeds Metropolitan University, has established the first annual camp for overweight children outside the United States.

He was prompted by Government statistics which revealed the number of obese and overweight children had doubled in the past 15 years.

Mr Gately said: "It's because kids are more inactive, though even those who come to us much prefer activities to watching television once you've made the environment right for them."

He identified other problems like more fast foods and fast food outlets. Parents don't let their children walk to school. And schools no longer have to do PE, they only have to 'aspire' to it.

He added: "And then there's advertising. We did a quiz in the camp about favourite ads, and all of the younger children's top 20 were for high fat."

He confirms that fat children are bullied. "I've had one who was pushed in front of a bus. It's not acceptable to make jokes about gender or race, but semi-sanctioned to laugh at fat people."

And the future looks gloomy. Trends from the National Audit Office suggest it will worsen. We're the fattest in Europe and only just behind the States. For Slimming World call 01773 521111.