Georgia Davis is the Britain’s fattest teenager. She was the fattest teenager in 2008 when she weighed 33 stone and won a scholarship to the Wellspring Academy in America. She lost 15 stone at Wellsprings, a weight loss boarding school.
I watched the documentary about Georgia going to Wellspring and really felt for her. 33 stone is a lot to weigh at any age, let alone 15 years old. She looked so different, her face, her attitude. She discovered her issues started when her Dad passed away when she was just 4 years old. At wellspring the children are put on a 1,500 calories-a-day menu as well as incorporating exercise into their every day lives. What I like about Wellspring is that they use CBT to determine how the weight was gained in the first place and how to avoid falling into the same traps.
A couple of weeks ago I googled Georgia Davis because I hadn’t heard anymore from her in the media. Surely if she returned to wellspring and lost the rest of the weight she’d be in the newspaper?
That’s when I read this Daily Mail article about Georgia having put on all that she’d lost and more, becoming 40 stone at 17 years old.
There’s a lot of speculation of the lack of care from her mother – as Georgia is her mother’s carer. In this interview with This Morning she also said that her first meal home from Wellsprings was chips. (It’s not a great video, there’s some fast-forwarding going on and the first 2 minutes are pointless.)
A couple of weeks ago my Dad told me a girl had to be removed from her home in Wales as she was so obese she was immobile. The ambulance and firemen had to remove a wall in order to get her out because she was so big and couldn’t walk. I knew that it was Georgia and another google search confirmed my fears.
She’s reached 63 stone. My heart sank. She’s 19 years old and had to be removed from her home because she couldn’t walk out the front door.
It’s clear to me that she has some kind of Eating Disorder, some unsolved, abusive relationship with food. You don’t get to 63 stone by just eating the’ wrong kind of food’ or ‘overeating a bit’. And yet still I read some of the comments and was shocked by the utter ignorance and hatred towards her.
I have worked in the fitness industry for 6 years. I’m sorry to say that almost every morbidly obese person I have come across is that way because they are lazy, greedy and insist that it’s someone elses fault they are over weight. There have been few exceptions. Despite free/subsidised training and concentrated efforts from trainers to motivate them, all you hear is how they only eat salad and yet somehow are 10-15 stone over weight.
I’m sure this girl has got problems, but then, havent we all? Yes she deserves a chance, but hasn’t she already had that?!
Tough love is needed here. Fat discrimination IS okay. It should not be taught to youngsters that it’s okay to abuse ones body and to increase the risk of numerous diseases.’
So many things wrong with this I don’t know where to start.
Stop making excuses for her. She’s fat cos she over-eats. That’s it. It’s not rocket science. She brought it on herself. With regards to your comment about people don’t pick on the skinny – they do.
Once again, it’s a fool’s errand to care for either. Eat healthily, exercise, and manage your diet. It’s dead simple. However, if she really wants to be fat, and by overeating she confirms as much – then I don’t think the society should pay for her. Similarly we shouldn’t pay for anorexic’s vitamin treatments when they collapse from lifting finger.
If she is fat because of some cancer or some hormonal imbalance then my apologies and she deserves all the care in the world. It’s not her own fault then.
Proof – check the posts on Victoria Beckham on this site (The Sun). You’ll find plenty of people having a go at her skeletal weight.’
It’s dead simple, guys. No need for complicated psychological reasoning… it’s just dead simple. Both of these comments are from The Sun.
But there were some comments that made me glad at least some people are clued up.
For some people, Food is an addiction in the same way drugs & alcohol are for some, it delivers the same ‘high’ in the brain as drugs & alcohol.
Trouble is, middle class alcoholics and drug addicts can keep their addictions private and out of sight, whereas obese people’s addictions are visible to all.
Anyone who thinks people get like this simply through laziness and greed are just plain ignorant.’
This comment is from The Guardian. Georgia has already mentioned that she feels addicted to food, takes responsibility for her actions and desperately needs help. Apparently, to knock her bedroom wall down, build a bridge to wheel her to the ambulance and have a specialist bed in the hospital it cost £100,000 of taxpayers money, and a lot of the bullies (Georgia had to shut down her facebook page because she was being cyberbullied) say that they aren’t being sizeist, they’re merely angry that their money is being spent on someone who got herself into this situation.
I can understand this, but then if someone developed lung cancer from smoking, as a non-smoker I still want that person to get medical care. I agree people do get themselves into these situation – I put the food into my own mouth, as did Georgia, but it’s not quite as simple as that.
Her father died, her stepfather has lung cancer, she is her mother’s carer… she hasn’t exactly led a privileged life. She has no choice but to accept help from the NHS, she hasn’t got the money to pay for private healthcare. Her addiction, her Eating Disorder is on show for everyone to see. And she’s 19.
A lot of different opinions are swimming around the net. I’d like to know yours, but even if you disagree entirely and think it is all Georgia’s fault, please be respectful.
Emma
I don’t think Georgia is entirely responsible, obviously her upbringing has tons of influence and if your parents are obese, you tend to do what they do, not what they say. Her parents carry a LOT of responsibility. They, as adults, were responsible for her well being, and well…they failed, for whatever reasons. It’s unfortunate she normalized this growing up (as opposed to developing issues, gaining weight as an adult.)
But…even though it’s important to consider where an individual comes from, you are judged (not the best choice of words) based on what you do, how you react. And we cope in different ways. Some people drink themselves to death after a tragedy, others becomes spokespersons to help others in a similar situation.
Therapy is important. Support (of friends & family) is important. Resources are important. Change in behavior is important. There is no 100% either/or, and if someone is lacking one or all, well, it just makes change more difficult.
But…..once you start making progress and learning about what it takes to move in the opposite direction…and you start losing weight, and you are shown how to do it and you see results……well….it’s kind of up to you to do the actual work. Her & parents & her PCP: to make sure she stays on track, goes to her therapy…etc….
Yes, I know there are many complicating factors when we’re talking about individuals, but…it’s ultimately your responsibility to take care of yourself the best way that you know how with the resources that you have.
So for therapy…I absolutely agree that this and whatever medical care she needs should be covered. BUT….the work: diet & exercise…well…she has to also chip in part of the effort. And somewhere along her progress, she stopped and went back…and that was a choice. Although because she was a minor…I hold her parents more responsible.
But now that she’s an adult…I would hope that she takes control over her health. It’s not simple, it’s not just eating better, exercising, etc. If you’ve got unresolved issues, well….you better do everything that you can to find people who will show you/help you how to deal with it. Because whatever you did prior to that was not working.
Thank you Raeesa for this comment, i completely agree. Her parents are to blame for part of the problem but it’s not all their fault, as i don’t think it’s all Georgia’s fault either. There are so many factors to a weight gain of this amount that mean there isn’t just one thing or person to blame.
I agree, her health is her issue now as an adult and she needs to take responsibility for it. If she needs to move out from her parents house to do so, then so be it. I’m sure i’d make that choice and do whatever i had to to gain back my health.
xx
Thank you so much for posting this. It pulled at my heart strings, that’s for sure.
It’s really odd to see this because in the states, it’s honestly not that uncommon. I converted the 33 stones over and whereas yes, it’s large, it wouldn’t be as shocking. Which to me is sad.
I find it also sad that people will say extremely underweight girls clearly have an eating disorder. I mean underweight girls with eating disorders get a bad name but at least it’s acknowledged as a disorder. Whereas girls like Georgia are overweight, and some of us can see there is more to it, a lot of people just call her lazy. I think that people need to be informed that there are more eating disorders than jus bulimia and anorexia. This girl clearly has an eating disorder and not either of those two.
Sorry for the mini rant. This post just made me think! Thanks for posting it. (; x
It is really sad that it’s common for people to be 33 stone in America
I totally agree! I think there needs to be more awareness of binge-eating disorder and EDNOS – if there had been as much in the media about BED and EDNOS as there is about Anorexia and Bulimia it would have saved me a lot of self-hatred. I really hope Georgia gets the right help for her and isn’t just put on a diet and exercise regime and told to go on her way!
Thanks for commenting
xx
There’s a LOT people do not understand about eating disorders, and this is CLEARLY one of those cases. At the same time though, as no one respects or feels sorry for an alcoholic who won’t get help for their addictions, people look at her the same way. It is an addiction. It is a problem. And she needs help. But when it is offered, she won’t stick with it, I can see how even knowing that this is an eating disorder and an addiction to food that it is still easy to look down on her for allowing herself to get this bad. Not doing SOMETHING, ANYTHING about the problem and letting it get so awful she has to be cut out of her house. It’s the same as an alcoholic allowing themselves to get so bad that they lose their families. No one is going to feel sorry for you. And shes admitted the problem is there and is still allowed it to get that bad. It’s complicated…
I don’t mean to be such a downer, I can just see how an extreme case like this can be looked at with disdain. I’m not even saying I agree with it. It’s just a way people see it.
I see where you’re coming from. The question “why didn’t she do something sooner?!” crossed my mind too, and i can understand that frustration.
But when if i were to come across an alcoholic at rock bottom, or a drug addict, i would try to understand that how they got there in such an awful state isn’t the main issue, the focus should be on how to treat their addictions from the moment they DO decide they need help.
I really hope she addresses her problems and overcomes them. Thanks for commenting you offered a new perspective
xx
Where is the line though? That line between “needing help” and “DECIDING they need help”? When an alcoholic goes on a drunken rampage and beats his wife to death? Does he decide he needs help then? Or maybe he NEEDS it BEFORE then? Before it gets that bad?
Hmm, i see your point. Yeah, you’re right, i suppose we do have a responsibility to others and ourselves to limit the overall damage of our problems by sorting them out sooner rather than later. You’re wise, Miss Pistachio
xx
Breaks my heart. Also goes to show what the readership of different newspapers is like (though I’d have guessed the first two to be the Mail before the Sun, similar people read I guess).
I think she does have a problem. I agree, no one gets to THAT size without some issue, yeah you can be a bit overweight even obese just because you eat too much and exercise too little, but there’s eating too much and there’s eating the amount required to gain so much in so little time. And I agree with the previous comment about parental influence (I reckon I got my bad grazing habits from my mum) especially during formative years.
I wish all the best for her and hope she beats this before it kills her.
Yeah the Mail and the Sun were full of negative comments whereas the Guardian comments tended to be slightly more educated… not really that surprising.
Yeah, i think to get to 33 stone by the age of 15 in the first place must have been a lot of parental influence, and then when she got back from camp she stayed at home, in the same environment where all the trouble started.
I really hope she gets better soon as well, thanks for commenting
xx
So sad.
It is
xx
This is so much for a girl to have to go through at 19, to have gone through already. I agree with you she has a serious eating disorder, and she needs a lot of help and KINDNESS. I hate the kind of comments that come up from anything about fat people these days – nasty, abusive. I read some HAES blogs and am in a facebook group rolls not trolls, https://www.facebook.com/groups/165890630180774/ where they try and ‘bomb’ article’s comments sections like that with a bit of reality (correcting myths) and positivity, just in case someone might be reading who that positivity will touch. It seems a thankless task but they do it. I can’t really handle it any more though, I might not be a fat person but on the inside, I’m the same as them. We have food problems and weight problems and the only difference is that theirs is far more visible than mine. They are still human beings.
People just don’t understand, and especially when it’s a group of people who are very visibly set apart because of appearance, turn against them instead of try to educate themselves and be tolerant and accepting.
I don’t think it would have been good for Georgia to go on a documentary about herself and her weight at such a young age, even though she was the fattest kid and won that scholarship – it would have concreted it for her that she was ‘the fat girl’ and what teenager wants to be recognised the nation over by everyone and even more of a target to comments like the crap people say? Also, same as I think people with other eating disorders are not able to make a rational decision when they are sick and desperate, she wouldn’t have been able to make this decision fully able to weigh up how it will affect her now and in the future. To me, featuring people who are sick in the media is usually exploitation of someone with no capacity to understand the ramifications of it.
I also think it’s worth saying – what the heck were her parents doing or not doing? She’s a kid – they are the ones with at least a certain degree of power over what she eats, and how much of it. And how can you turn a blind eye to a child so unwell and just let it continue? Where also, were medical professionals, before this got so out of hand? Why wasn’t she in an eating disorders program years ago?
So many questions. Britain’s health services failed this girl
I don’t think she should have done the documentary either, she set herself up for failure. After she lost so much wait she went on Good Morning America as well, imagine sitting in your room, immobile with excess weight, so consumed by your disorder and remembering the ‘glory days’ when you went on TV in America!
I beat myself up about when i lost 3 stone on Lighterlife. Not a day goes by when i don’t remember how that felt and feel like such a failure – i feel awful for her. Her parents should have educated themselves about food and asked for help a lot sooner. It’s tragic, but i hope this is rock bottom, and she’ll overcome her problems and lose weight. You’re right, the NHS failed her. She should have asked for help, yes, but other people should have stepped in a lot sooner
xx
I saw her story in the papers a few weeks ago and it made me desperately sad the child has a food addiction and major emotional ties with food. It never ceases to amaze me how much love could heal.. Love of self and love from friends and family.
I pray she gets the support she needs to tackle the emotional issues she has suffered so that she can deal with the food addiction.
Unfortunately people are naive and heartless to food addictions. Perhaps if there was more awareness that the ‘food’ we’re sold is addictive and chronically toxic people would understand that it’s no different to drug and alcohol abuse.
X
I love the last paragraph of this comment. We are sold addictive food that is so much cheaper than nutricious food. I mean, i don’t think it’s an excuse to solely buy unhealthy, cheaper food, but it’s easier to go with what you know at a better price.
And often being on benefits in a home with more sick people than healthy must be extremely depressing. Thanks for this comment Rose
xx
It’s funny that there is a lot of calculation of how much people with overeating disorders cost the NHS, but whenever there is an article about the rising toll of anorexia or similar there is never any equivalent calculation. I’m not sure I’m qualified to comment the responsibility of Georgia or her parents or the healthcare services, but it has to be borne in mind that food is designed to be as cheap and “more-ish” as possible. Naturally some people are more susceptible than others but we choose to condemn them. Again this condemnation seems to be limited to the overweight.
I’m not sure that was very coherent, but thank you for drawing attention to it. I really hope Georgia’s life improves.
I have read that in reality, obesity related illness accounts for approximately 5% of healthcare spending!! So the people who are crying out about their taxpayer dollars being wasted are so so wrong. Smoking related, alcohol related and drug related illness costs FAR more than obesity related – and besides, people with weight/food problems pay tax too! It’s more of a NIMBY attitude with every possible way of backing it up than truth
As i said above in reply to rosedays comment, food that is addictive and moreish is cheaper and often the quicker and easier option. And with all the health issues in the house, the constant care Georgia has to give, it would be really difficult for her not to be depressed. The lack enthusiasm to make the HUGE changes required when having Eating Disorder whilst coping in this environment would have been really tough.
That statistic is incredible FIona, i mean i know there is a lot of talk of the horrendous health problems associated with obesity but i think they might sometimes be exaggerated. I’m obese, and i don’t have high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes or anything wrong physically. Yet my diet used to be ridiculously high in sugar. It’s really not a black and white situation. xx
Thank you for being the one kind voice in a million hateful ones. I am actually Georgia’s best friend from Wellspring Academy and know more of the struggles she has then most others. It makes me sick to know no one is willing to stand up for her. She is such an overly independent person that she gets furious when someone tries to blame her mother or anyone else for her problems, even if they did have a hand in them. There is only one thing that I don’t think you understand from some of your comments. Georgia didn’t choose to do the documentary or any other type of news. Since Wellspring was in the US, the UK’s government run healthcare wouldn’t cover it. She had to go into private medical payment. The only way she could pay for it was to allow these programs to film/write about her.
(sorry I’m commenting on this months after it was written. I like to know what is being said about her even if I get really angry at it sometimes. I read a lot of the stuff that is written as it comes out but I just found yours.)
Kristen, I think you are the best sort of friend anyone could have, loyal and loving. Thank you for setting us straight about what happened. I think it’s heartbreaking that Georgia had to go through that to get any help at all. She has an illness, she should have been able to access help in her own country without having to go on TV to pay for it. She’s been let down and I am so sorry.
How is Georgia now? Is she okay? I have kept thinking about her, hoping and praying she is okay, and that she will be okay – and I know I’m one of many who do the same.
From what I can tell she’s doing better. I believe she has been released from the hospital and has moved into her own apartment. I actually haven’t been able to talk to her since she was hospitalized because of various reasons. While it’s true that she’s been giving a heavy hand in life what most don’t realize is that Georgia is as stubborn as they come. She will have set backs sometimes but she will find a way to pull through. Thank you so much for caring.
I’m sorry that I haven’t replied sooner! Thanks for commenting Kristen, i didn’t realise she had to agree to be filmed in order to go to Wellspring for financial reasons, so thank you for letting me know. I’m appalled that she couldn’t get the help she needed on the NHS, but unfortunately not surprised.
Like Fiona, i think about Georgia often, i hope she is doing better, and it must be so hard to be bullied through the media and have no choice really but to go on camera in order to get the help you deserve. If you do speak to her, please pass on my well wishes, and thanks again for commenting. If you could give any updates when you know, that would be great, thanks
xx