A Belfast nurse who spent years battling a weight problem and transformed her life by having surgery is using her experience to help patients in a weight management clinic.

Sharon Watterson, who was forced to quit her job as a nurse in a GP surgery because she was so big she just couldn’t walk, has shed an amazing 12 stone after having a gastric bypass. The mum-of-two is now a shapely size 16 more than a year after the operation and has just clinched her dream job – as a bariatric nurse specialist with weight management specialists Vita Clinics, in Belfast.

Fifty-year-old Sharon has dropped 16 dress sizes since the operation to help control the amount of food she eats. She has stopped taking the 12 tablets a day to control her blood pressure, because it is back to normal and she doesn’t need to take her diabetes drugs as the symptoms have disappeared.

She said: “I spent years dieting after two pregnancies, but for every stone I lost I put two back on. I was quite active, which really helped to keep the weight under control. Then I suffered with depression for a while, which sent me into a downward spiral. I struggled to get out and exercise, and comfort eating helped me feel better. Then I suffered a prolapsed disk in my back and I started gaining weight at a dramatic rate. I didn’t do any exercise, because I couldn’t. To help myself through I was comfort eating. I became so big that I could hardly move. I developed diabetes and seriously high blood pressure and I had to quit my job.

“It was a vicious circle that I just couldn’t break. Surgery was the only option and it has changed my life. After a year of losing weight after the surgery I am now a size 16 and I am healthy. The problems with my back have healed as I don’t have to carry the weight round. My blood pressure is normal and I don’t have to take diabetes medication any more. I can now exercise again. I am happy. I have got my life back.

“When I saw this job advertised, I couldn’t think of anyone who was better qualified for it than myself.

“People who are obese or overweight have usually had a long time of friends, family and medical professionals not understanding. When they come to Vita Clinics I show them my before picture and then they can look at me standing fit and healthy in front of them. I tell them my story. It is great to be able to share my experience with people who come to us in such a desperate state. I used to be in their shoes, so I understand exactly what they are going through. I am pleased that I can help them to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is possible to lose the weight and change their lives for the better,” she added.

The new Vita Clinics weight management clinics that are dedicated to helping people who are overweight or obese, have taken on some of the best dieticians, physicians, nurses, surgeons and psychologists in the country to provide weight management treatments and surgery.

Sharon works with patients who are eligible to have gastric band, gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy or duodenal switch operations. She also works with patients on medical weight management programmes.

Vita Clinics has treatment centres in Birmingham, Manchester, Belfast and London with several more planned nationwide.

The rates of obesity in the UK have more than doubled in the last 25 years. Nearly a quarter of men and a quarter of women are obese. Based on current trends nearly 60 per cent of the UK population could be obese by 2050 – that is almost two out of three people1.

At the moment, more than 700,000 people in the UK are in the weight band that means they qualify for obesity surgery or medical support; around 8,000 surgical procedures are completed in the UK every year.

For further information about weight loss surgery or other weight management programmes contact Vita Clinics on 0800 849 4050 or go on-line and complete our enquiry form here.