The former world’s fattest man, who weighed 40kg at his heaviest, has revealed how a doctor warned him he would die before he turned 40.
But Paul Mason, from Ipswich, has defied predictions by reaching the age of 64, and despite still weighing 160 stone and being bedridden, he revealed he is determined to use his time to enjoy his own life and help others where he can.
Speaking to MirrorHe said: ‘A doctor once told me I’d be lucky to see 40 and now here I am, almost retired.
“I may not be able to walk again, but that’s something that affects me. I just want to use my time to help others and make sure they don’t make the same mistakes I did.”
He had previously dropped to 190kg after finding love and undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2010. But he gained weight again after the break-up of his relationship with American Rebecca Mountain, who was 13 years his junior.
Former world’s fattest man Paul Mason, from Ipswich, has spoken out about his weight fluctuations and said doctors predicted he would die before he was 40 (pictured in 2008 when he weighed 40 stone).
In 2021, he fell into a deep depression and tried to take his own life after reaching the limits of his strength and becoming “desperate.” But he instantly regretted it and called an ambulance.
However, the lift in his building was broken and, due to his size, two fire engines had to be called before eight men were able to sling him out.
He said: “It got so bad I couldn’t breathe and they sent a paramedic who insisted I go to hospital. It was horrible, there were people outside taking photographs.”
Paul said he is determined not to sink to such a low again and now lives in a purpose-built apartment at a residential care facility on the South Coast.
He is unable to walk, so he uses an extra-wide motorized wheelchair to get around and even takes up a new hobby: gardening.
Paul rose to fame in the documentary The World’s Fattest Man, which showed him aged 28 telling how he ate 20,000 calories a day, including 40 chocolate bars, huge fried foods and takeaways.
He had previously made headlines when he revealed that a hospital had planned to cremate him in a slaughterhouse designed for animals if he died because they would not have been able to handle his size themselves.
Paul said he was “disgusted” by plans drawn up during his three years living on a hospital ward, which included cremating the animal if it died.
Paul started going to the gym to keep his weight under control in 2018, however, after splitting from his girlfriend, he gained weight again.
Paul, who defied predictions and lived to be 64, weighed 40 kilos at his heaviest (pictured in 2023)
Paul dropped to 190kg after finding love and undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2010.
When his relationship with American Rebecca Mountain (right), 13 years his junior, broke down, he returned to the UK from the US and began to put on the pounds again.
The former postman told ITV in the documentary The World’s Fattest Man: 10 Years On that he experienced inhumane treatment as he battled his increasing weight.
“If I died in the hospital they couldn’t take care of someone my size, so they made a form to say that if I died in the hospital they would have to take me to a slaughterhouse, where large animals go and die… And I would be cremated in animal cremation,” Paul said.
“I found it disgusting. I couldn’t believe they were doing that,” she added.
Paul explained that as he got heavier he found it increasingly difficult to leave the house and as his diet of 40 chocolate bars a day was causing his teeth to crumble, he would pull out his own broken ones, according to the Sun.
He claimed he had managed to kill a nerve by heating needles and sterilising his mouth before inserting the needle directly into the gum. He estimates he had removed at least a dozen teeth using this method.
He was able to reduce his weight to 19 stone after successful gastric bypass surgery in 2010 and soon moved to the United States to be with Rebecca Mountain, 13 years his junior.
While living in the United States, Paul underwent surgery to remove excess skin.
However, he soon gained weight back up to over 15 stone after gorging himself on pizza when his relationship with Rebecca came to an end.
The basic health insurance he could afford in the US was inadequate for his health, Paul previously told the Mirror.
Before he moved to join Ms Mountain, a 40kg vegetarian, in Massachusetts in 2014, Paul’s care was costing UK taxpayers £100,000 a year and an estimated £1.5m in total.
Paul, who rose to fame on TLC’s The Fattest Man in the World, said that when he was heavier he would pull out his teeth as they crumbled due to his 40-chocolate-bar-a-day diet (pictured, 2009).
The former fattest man in the world was left with 40 kilos of excess skin in 2013
However, he soon gained weight back up to over 140kg after bingeing on pizza when his relationship with Rebecca came to an end.
He is unable to walk, so he uses an extra-wide motorized wheelchair to get around and has even taken up a new hobby: gardening (photo from 2017).
In a medical emergency in 2002, firefighters had to remove a window and some bricks so that a forklift could take him out of the house and to the hospital in a five-ton ambulance built especially for obese people.
In 2009, he needed life-saving surgery after eating 20,000 calories a day, including three family meals a night.
Then, in 2010, she underwent gastric bypass surgery that reduced her stomach to the size of an egg.
In 2013, Mountain contacted Mason after watching a documentary about him. The couple became engaged and in May 2015, Mason had 20 kilos of excess skin removed in a nine-hour procedure in New York.
The NHS had refused to carry out the operation, which cost £30,000, until her weight had stabilised for two years.
Despite losing weight to 192 kilos, the couple called off their engagement in September 2015.
In 2019 he returned to the UK “to get the help I need to get my life back on track”. At the time, Paul claimed he needed multiple operations, including new knees, a hip and numerous hernia operations, costing the NHS more than £100,000.
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