A mum-of-two who didn’t think she’d live to see her 40th birthday is looking forward to watching her kids grow up after shedding 10st. Donna Glodzinska, 33, from Fort William, tipped the scales at nearly 23st after years of trying desperately to shed the pounds with strict diets and exercise regimes.
But when her GP told her the excess weight was due to her hormones, she flew to Latvia for a gastric sleeve operation.After undergoing surgery at the Weight Loss Riga clinic, she has been able to bring her weight under control.
And the new, slimmer version of herself is looking forward to attending gigs with her 14-year-old daughter and running around the garden with her young son.
Donna said: “I am quite a spontaneous person, I don’t like to live my life with plans. I just want to be healthy and see my kids grow up. But before the surgery I didn’t think that would happen. The way my life was going, I thought I would be dead before the age of 40.”
Donna struggled with her weight during her teenage years but slimmed down as she neared her 20s. After having her daughter at 19, she began receiving contraceptive jabs, prompting a huge change in her weight.
She went up to a size 26 in three months, becoming withdrawn and self-conscious. At times, she was mortified to be asked if she was pregnant again. She continued: "Weight gain can be one of the side effects [of contraceptive jabs] and I just ballooned. The difference was dramatic.
“I tried everything I could to get back to a more normal weight. I lost 3st on the Cambridge Diet, but it basically involved starving myself. I did slimmers’ clubs and exercise classes - lots and lots of different stuff to try to change things.
"While I would lose some weight initially, it would always come back with a vengeance. I knew it was down to my own bad habits but I also suffered from sciatica, which meant moving around was difficult.”
The weight loss dented her confidence as she refused to put on a swimsuit to take her family to the pool. But she saw hope after speaking to her GP about how to shed the weight, having tried almost every option on the table.
She said: “I got to a stage where I was pretty desperate so I went to see my doctor, who luckily had a special interest in nutrition. I just said, ‘I’ve tried all of these things and they haven’t worked - what can I do?’.
“She told me my weight was due to hormonal reasons and I would never be able to lose it on my own. I was left with two choices - either have surgery or stay the way I was. I knew I had to go abroad because it was far too expensive in the UK.”
She found the Weight Loss Riga clinic on social media and boarded a plane to Latvia in June 2021, when she weighed almost 23st. The surgery was successful and she was up and walking within hours.
Back home, she had to follow a strict diet plan and shed her target of 10st by the end of that year. She says the difference it has made to her lifestyle and confidence has been life-changing.
She summed up: “I can run around in the garden with my two-year-old son and go for a walk without feeling like I’m going to collapse. When I get on an aeroplane there is space in the seatbelt, rather than needing the extra buckle.
“I’ve even taken my daughter to a Guns ‘n’ Roses concert, which is something I’d never dreamt of doing before.”
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