07:39am 23rd November 2004

Natalie Cox: Fears over-eating could kill her

A girl of 13 who weighs 20-stone and takes no exercise has been told
she could be snacking herself to death. Natalie Cox consumes four times
the recommended number of calories for a child of her age. She wears
size 30 clothes and minimal movement leaves her out of breath. The 5ft
5in schoolgirl was even forced to give up her greatest love, riding,
when she became too heavy for the ponies.

Natalie, who is asthmatic and has a 50in waist, starts her day
healthily with a breakfast of beans on toast. But by the time she tucks
into her regular lunch of jacket potato with cheese and beans, she has
also eaten a sandwich, muffins, crisps, a sausage roll and a pizza.

Before dinner she has added cake, sweets, more packets of crisps, a bar
of chocolate, half a packet of biscuits and cheese sandwiches to her
daily menu. After all of this and a supper of steak and vegetables,
Natalie will consume a family-size bar of chocolate, a king-size Mars
and two bowls of cereal before bed time. Under her bed are wrappers
from hidden snacks of crisps and sweets.

Now Natalie has been told she faces drastic surgery to dramatically
reduce her weight - or risk an early grave. Her frightened mother
Cheryl, 40, said: "I sat her down and told her that she will die if she
continues to eat like this but she just eats more. "The only thing that
will work is for her to have an operation where they put a band round
her stomach to limit her intake."

Natalie, who lives in Winchester, Hampshire, with her parents and
ten-year-old brother Peter, says she turns to food for comfort because
she is bullied about her weight. "I'm desperate to get thin so I can
buy clothes like all the people at school," she said. "They tease me
and I get depressed. My bones click when I walk and I get out of
breath."

Natalie's daily calorie intake has reached 7,000 - vastly over the
recommended 1,800. Mrs Cox says she and her security officer husband
Kenneth, 58, have tried everything to limit her eating.

"I've repeatedly taken her to the doctor's, to slimming classes and
I've even hired her a personal trainer," said Mrs Cox, a care worker
who spends £90 a week on her daughter's food. "I have tried not buying
so much but she finds other ways of getting it."  Natalie has been
referred to several specialist dieticians but Mrs Cox, who weighs
18-stone (252 lbs), says diets are not the answer.

"I'm trying desperately to get her the operation but privately it costs
about £3,500 and we just can't afford that," she said.

Rates of childhood obesity in the UK have tripled in the past 20 years
and around a fifth of ten-year-olds are overweight, drastically
in-creasing their chances of diabetes and strokes. Last week, the
Government revealed plans to ban junk food adverts on television until
after 9pm. The same White Paper also proposed personal trainers and
"lifestyle gurus" on the NHS after it was revealed that England has the
fastest-growing weight problem in Europe.

Last night Natalie's mother added: "She has no quality of life. She's
13 and has no friends. I'm at my wits' end."

This story first appeared in the Globe and Mail (UK)