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THE mum of Britain’s heaviest man has spoken of her struggle to control his eating, admitting she was “too soft” – but it’s not his fault he’s “addicted”.
Devastated Leisa Holton says her 47 stone son Jason has been hooked on takeaways and sugary drinks since he was a teenager.
She now fears the 33-year-old – whose dad tragically died when he was little – does not have long left unless he is given the miracle weight loss jab Wegovy by the NHS.
In an exclusive interview mum-of-one Leisa, 53, tells The Sun: “He’s got a very addictive personality and I was too soft. I’ve always been a softy.
“But I am not sure there is anything I could have done differently, because he wouldn’t listen. He did whatever he wanted.
“It would have been easier if his dad was around. I could have been stricter, but he was always out and about and I couldn’t control him.
“When he got really big I would tell him to eat better food, but he would get really upset. He was addicted.”
Jason was just three years old when his dad Sultan Nemer died in a car accident aged 21.
He says the trauma was partly responsible for getting him addicted to kebab takeaways and cigarettes when he was just 13.
In 2006, when he was 16 and weighing 23st, his single mum took out a £6,000 bank loan to send him to a nine-week ‘fat camp’ in New Jersey.
Leisa hoped it was money well spent when Jason managed to lose a few stone.
But by the time he turned 26 he was eating 10,000 calories a day and drinking at least five litres of fruit juice and fizzy drinks.
He would spend £10,000 a year on takeaways such as chicken chow mein and chips and eating a few bags of crisps for breakfast.
In 2020 Jason had to be winched from his mum’s second storey maisonette in Camberley, Surrey, by a crane and a team of firefighters when his organs began to fail under his 50st frame.
Earlier this week we told how Jason had lost around 3st while on a strict diet at a care home in London, but that he was rushed to hospital again in January.
Doctors suspected he had suffered a blood clot and wanted to take him to a zoo to carry out tests using machines designed to treat large animals like zebras.
Leisa now acts as Jason’s main carer and lives with him in a specially adapted £400,000 bungalow in a Hampshire village.
Skinny baby
She insists her son was an average sized child when he was little – and she blames school dinners for fattening him up.
Leisa says: “I’ve always said that when he was one, he was 1st and when he was two he was 2st and so on. He was a skinny baby – 6lbs and 12oz.
“His dad was a normal weight and I would always give Jason typical English meals at home like chicken with mash potato and sausage and beans.
“He didn’t like eating chocolate or sweets. At Easter I would buy him chocolate eggs, but he refused to eat them.
Read Related Also: 47st man said he’d do ‘anything’ to lose weight… but gave up because it was too hard
“The only bad food he had back then was school dinners, which were rubbish.
He’s got a very addictive personality and I was too soft
Leisa Holton
“I first noticed he was overweight when he was about five or six.
“I was worried about the school dinners and I would sometimes tell him to come home for lunch, so he didn’t have to eat the junk food they were giving him.
“His downfall came when he turned 13 and he started secretly buying takeaways when he was out with his friends.
“He was buying lamb doner kebabs and chips and stuff like that without telling me. I couldn’t control what he was eating.
“I didn’t know he had started smoking until he turned 15. I told him, ‘You shouldn’t be smoking at your age,’ but he carried on anyway.”
Jason was allowed to return home in March following treatment at East Surrey hospital in Redhill.
He is completely immobile as his legs can no longer support him and he has not left his bedroom for six months.
Yet Jason – who suffers from the swelling condition lymphedema – is facing a nervous wait to see if doctors will prescribe him the miracle fat jabs once they become available on the NHS.
Wegovy is the brand name for the semaglutide injection drug, and its popularity with private patients has caused a global shortage that is affecting supplies.
Leisa says: “He nearly died at the hospital in Redhill.
“The doctors called me and said to come in and when I got there they warned me he might not survive the night. I got really upset, I cried my eyes out.
“I thought, ‘This is it, this is the end.’ I got everyone – his best friend and my brothers and sisters – to come round.
The doctors called me and said to come in and when I got there they warned me he might not survive the night. I got really upset, I cried my eyes out
Leisa Holton
“The doctor said he had multiple things wrong with him and his blood pressure was low.
“Jason has survived so many things, even sepsis, but it felt like he wouldn’t survive this.
“I’m always worried about my son. I’ve been caring for him for years and I stopped working in 2018 so I could look after him.
“He often cries when he is feeling low because he’s desperate to get off the bed.
“We were both hoping he would be able to have the injection, but I am not sure they are going to give them to him.
“I’ve stood by Jason throughout this and that’s the main thing. Other parents would wash their hands of the situation.”
A spokesperson for the company that makes the weight loss jabs said: “Novo Nordisk is prioritising supply of Wegovy for NHS patients to allow healthcare professionals to implement NICE guidance.
“We are closely monitoring Wegovy demand and action is being taken by Novo Nordisk to ensure people living with obesity can start and remain on treatment.”
