A HEREFORD crisp addict who gorged on a multipack per day has lost seven stone after gastric sleeve surgery - and is now splashing £12,000 to remove piles of loose skin.

Snack enthusiast, Melissa Jones, 38, saw her weight rocket after munching 24 packets of crisps A DAY, as well as eating fast food at least three times a week.

Unable to stick to diets or lose weight naturally, Ms Jones, then a size 24 and weighing 19 stone, decided enough was enough after not being able to fit in a pedalo seat on holiday with her young sons.

After returning home in October 2013, she started looking into getting surgical help to shift her weight.

She visited her GP who suggested she applied for a gastric sleeve and she was put on an NHS list.

OTHER NEWS:

After a three-year wait, in February 2016, her surgery was confirmed and the GP told her that she'd have to lose at least two stone before the surgery to reduce the risk of medical complications.

Determined slim down, she ate a strict yoghurt-based diet and was able to shift the weight needed.

In May 2016, she underwent NHS gastric sleeve surgery, which dramatically reduced the size of her stomach and she lost six stone in just seven months- taking her to a svelte dress size 14 and weighing 13 stone.

After maintaining her slimmer figure for 12 months, a bad break up saw her slipping back to old ways and she soon found herself ballooning to 19st 9lbs.

But the single mum-of-two didn't give up and in June 2020 underwent an NHS funded gastric bypass.

A gastric bypass is when the stomach is divided into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch thus restricting the amount of food that your stomach holds.

Despite her success, Ms Jones, now a size 12 and 12st 6lbs, has been left with ''piles of sagging skin'' and is currently awaiting a £12,000 body lift at a private hospital to remove it.

OTHER NEWS:

Ms Jones, a carer, from Hereford, said: "I was a massive comfort eater- it's always been my downfall.

"My go-to comfort food was crisps because of the crunch, I'd get one of those 24 multipacket and polish off the lot.

"I'd go on holiday with my two boys and I wouldn't be able to fit in the peddle boats. It was embarrassing for me and them.

''After the gastric sleeve, I felt great but emotionally I was in a terrible place. I'd had a few broken relationships and my fibromyalgia had gotten worse.'I was comfort eating and my mobility was awful.

"But after having a gastric band, I've felt great."

Melissa, who is mum to 15-year-old, Macauley and Morgan, 10, credits her rocky relationship around food with always feeling like the ''bigger friend'' during her school years.