A young man has continued to lose weight and is winning his battle against obesity. Twenty-year-old Jonathan Wallace has lost a further 3st in the last year and is now down to 20st 12lb. His weight loss can be largely attributed to a painful and risky operation to have his stomach stapled which he underwent over a year-and-a-half ago.

When Jonathan had the operation he was 32st and had been told by doctors that he must lose weight or die.

By March last year he had plummeted to 24st and in the last year has dropped a further 3st. In total he has lost over 11st since he was originally told to take action by

doctors when he was 16. Jonathan said: “I am trying to make small changes to my diet and cut out the junk food. My goal now is to get down to 18st."

“The doctor has said that I’m not in the critical category any more, so that’s great.” Jonathan, of Jutland Road, Hartlepool, described his experiences of having his stomach stapled. He said: “I thought that I would be in and out of hospital in a couple of days but it wasn’t like that. I had to eat mashed up food for four weeks and got a crushing pain whenever I coughed.

“After the operation my mind still thought that I could still eat loads, but if I ate over the portion size then I’d be sick, so I don’t push it any more.” Jonathan is now engaged to girlfriend of three-and-a-half years, Gemma Littlewood, 19.

He said: “Gemma is really supportive and wants us to do exercise together. Every day I cycle to her house which is a couple of miles.”

Jonathan has just started the next stage of his transformation as he begins a rehabilitation programme at Fitness Connection Gym in Brenda Road, Hartlepool.

David Veitch, exercise and rehabilitation consultant, said: “We are not going to dictate to Jonathan what he should be doing. “We are going to educate him about how he could improve his lifestyle and our nutritionist Sharon Bain will be looking at his diet. Whatever happens we will keep it fun.” The scheme is sponsored by Government initiative Active Enterprise and fitness co-ordinator Daniel Johnson came from London to meet with Jonathan.

He said: "We help people who want to gain a fitter lifestyle and achieve active goals."