I was so fat I broke my neck and lost 22 babies – now I’ve shed almost 12st and look like a completely different person
WHEN Katie Dixon-Hancock fell over while out walking her dog, she never imagined she would end up breaking her neck.
But at 23st, stumbling backwards put so much weight on the top part of her spine that it came “crashing down” and fractured.
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After she recovered, Katie, 41, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, vowed that she needed to slim down.
And there was another heartbreaking reason behind her decision.
She had lost 22 babies during pregnancy through miscarriage, and after one such loss, a nurse had blamed her size.
Katie, who lives with husband Roy, 51, tells Sun Health: “We have been trying for 16 years to have a baby and to have lost so many is heartbreaking.
“When the nurse told me that, it was an awful thing to hear.
“And then when I slipped and broke my neck because I was so overweight too, it was the final straw for me.”
Katie went to Turkey to have gastric sleeve surgery – which involves removing a large portion of the stomach – in March 2023, after her 22nd baby loss.
Since then she has shed an amazing 11st 9lbs (73kg).
“I feel so much better now, and so much healthier,” she says.
“I have so much more energy, and if I fall over again, I won’t have so much weight crashing down.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be a mum as I’ve suffered so many miscarriages so far.
“But now I’ve lost weight, we will have to see what happens.”
Katie had struggled with her weight all her life, and it had a profound effect on her mental health.
She says: “I was called names and jeered at during my years at school, and I didn’t have any friends as nobody wanted to be seen with me.”
She met husband Roy in 2006, and they married the following year.
“I was worried when I first met him that he would be put off by my weight,” Katie says.
“We connected online and talked for a while before we met in person.
“But he’s always been massively supportive of me, and my weight has never been an issue for him.”
I’ve dropped from a dress size 26 to a 12, and I look like a different person
Katie Dixon-Hancock
Katie has struggled for years with a neurological condition that causes her to lose function in her legs and fall.
She has broken her arm several times when it happens, but the most serious incident was when she was walking her dog in 2020 and she suddenly lost sensation in her legs.
“I never know when it’s going to happen,” she says.
“But my size doesn’t help, as when I fall there is so much weight behind me that I end up breaking limbs.
“This particular time, I lost the sensation in my legs and I fell backwards, landing awkwardly on my neck.
“People walked past me lying on the floor and didn’t stop to help, but I managed to phone Roy and he called an ambulance which took me straight to hospital.”
What is the difference between a gastric band, bypass and sleeve?
The three most widely used types of weight loss surgery are:
- Gastric band: where a band is used to reduce the stomach’s size, meaning you will feel full after eating a reduced amount of food
- Gastric bypass: where your digestive system is re-routed past stomach, so you digest less food and it takes less to make you feel full
- Sleeve gastrectomy: where some of the stomach is removed, to reduce the amount of food required to make you feel full
When coupled with exercise and a healthy diet, weight loss surgery has been found to be effective in dramatically reducing a patient’s excess body fat.
Recent research in the United States found that people with gastric bands lose around half of their excess body weight.
Meanwhile gastric bypasses reduce this excess body weight by two thirds post-op.
However, it’s not always successful – and patients still need to take responsibility for eating well and working out.
There, doctors discovered that Katie had broken the top part of her neck and she needed three weeks recovering in hospital in a neck brace.
“Roy was really worried, and my dad, Garry, was too,” she says.
“My dad had seen me in a wheelchair several times because of breaking my limbs and he was so worried about me.
“He was housebound due to Parkinson’s disease and he couldn’t come and visit me, which really upset him.
“The doctors told me that if I hadn’t been so big, then I may have just knocked or bruised my neck, but 23st falling onto my neck meant that it fractured.”
Shortly after the incident, Garry passed away.
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A few years later, once she had recovered from her neck injury, Katie decided to book gastric surgery in Turkey.
“I used some of my inheritance money from dad to pay for it as I knew he would be so pleased,” she says.
“He always knew how much I wanted to lose weight, so he would have been delighted that I was finally doing something about it.”
Katie flew to Turkey with Roy by her side, and had the operation, which was successful.
‘Strangers used to ignore me, now they smile and say hello’
“The weight started to fall off me,” she says.
“And when I finally hit 12st 6lbs (79kg), I couldn’t believe it.
“I’ve dropped from a dress size 26 to a 12, and I look like a different person.
“Roy thinks I look fantastic too, although he’s always loved me whatever size I’ve been.
“People are much more friendly towards me now I’m thin as well.
“Strangers smile and say hello – but when I was fat, I just got ignored.
“And best of all, having the surgery and losing all the weight has helped with my condition.
“I still have to be careful, but I don’t fall with it like I used to.
“My neck is still a bit tender sometimes, so I have to be extra careful of that.
“But if my legs lose sensation, then they aren’t trying to hold up 23st any more.”
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How to lose weight without surgery
There are various other ways to lose weight without going under the knife.
According to the NHS, to get the best possible start on its weight loss plan, there are the seven steps you should follow.
- Get active for 150 minutes a week – you can break this up into shorter sessions
- Aim to get your 5 A Day – 80g of fresh, canned or frozen fruit or vegetables count as 1 portion
- Aim to lose 1 to 2lbs, or 0.5 to 1kg, a week
- Read food labels – products with more green colour coding than amber and red are often a healthier option
- Swap sugary drinks for water – if you do not like the taste, add slices of lemon or lime for flavour
- Cut down on food that’s high in sugar and fat – start by swapping sugary cereal for wholegrain alternatives
- Share your weight loss plan with someone you trust – they can help motivate you when you have a bad day
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