A mum-of-three who lost a third of her body weight after stomach surgery said she now feels like a freak.

Deborah Dean has been left with large flaps of excess skin on her stomach after shedding seven of her former 21 stones following a gastric bypass operation at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

She said at the time of the surgery, which took place in December 2005, she was told that she would be referred for a "tidy-up" after losing weight.

But she said she has now been told that the surgery will not be funded by the NHS and it will cost £5,500 to have it done privately.

Miss Dean, 42, a care assistant and cleaner, of Larch Hill, Odsal, Bradford, said she could not fault the doctors who helped her with the initial operation.

But she said she felt her quality of life had plummeted following the surgery.

She said: "I could go swimming when I was fat but I can't now because everything hangs where it shouldn't hang. It's horrible.

"I was a fit person. I have never smoked, I work full time - I'm a busy person.

"I feel more depressed now. I like the fact that the weight is going but I feel deformed. I feel like a freak.

"I don't like this feeling at all. I wish I had stayed fat. I wish I hadn't had the operation."

Miss Dean said she had been referred for the surgery after years of struggling with her weight.

She said her size "ballooned" after the birth of her son, Andrew, now 18, and she put on more weight after a caesarean section when she had her twin daughters, Aimmie and Laura, now 14.

After years of dieting and medical advice she was offered a gastric bypass.

"I jumped at the chance," she said.

"The doctor did say he would refer me for a tidy-up. But now it has come to light he can refer me, but they won't fund it."

A spokesman for Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT said: "Removal of excess skin following gastric bypass surgery, or other similar surgery, is not part of the routine procedure for this treatment.

"However, the tPCT does have a clinical-priorities group, which is a standing committee of the tPCT and has both lay and clinical representation, which considers individual cases on an exceptional basis."

Miss Dean said she had not been aware of the PCT's clinical-priorities group until being told about it by the Telegraph & Argus. She said she now intended to approach her GP to request that her case to be considered by the committee.

The bypass operation - which can cost up to £15,000 - involves dividing the stomach in two and connecting the smaller part to the final segment of the small intestine.

As previously reported in the T&A, a Department of Health report showed that 18 dangerously overweight patients had undergone obesity operations run by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2005/6.

Obesity expert Professor Andrew Hill, who is helping to tackle the condition in Bradford, said the operations were only carried out on morbidly obese people with great health needs.

He said they were at serious increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

But he said it was his belief that if such an operation was carried out by the NHS, the patient should also be able to have publicly funded corrective surgery.

"My personal opinion is that the corrective surgery should be made available to patients post weight loss. It should be part of the surgical package and should be thought of as completing the weight loss intervention," he said.

Miss Dean's operation took almost ten hours to complete.

Afterwards she changed her eating habits and increased her working hours to help the weight loss and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

But she said despite the improvements to her physical health the impact on her mental health meant corrective surgery was not a purely cosmetic procedure.

"I cannot praise them enough for this operation but they are not interested now.

"I thought they would help me out. I didn't think they would leave me like this.

"People say I look really good, but I don't feel good. People say my personality has changed, the way I act has changed.

"I'm near suicidal, I'm that bad."

She said it would be impossible to raise the cash to have the operation done privately.

"I can't afford it," she said. "I'm working to keep my head above the water as it is. I'm working 60 hours a week."

Miss Dean said she had been referred to a private plastic surgeon by her GP. She had almost cancelled the initial consultation as it cost £100, but she met the doctor after her mother offered to pay the fee.

"He said to me he could do the surgery, but at the end of the day I would have to pay for it," she said.

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