I HAD TO LOOK, SO NOW YOU DO TOO!

I hope you've digested your breakfast before you read this blog because mine almost came back up after seeing these pictures! This is Paul Mason. He's a 52-year-old man from Suffolk, England who was once known as the world's fattest man. Now, he's known as the world's saggiest man. You see, Mason has nothing more to lose, except 112 pounds of loose sagging skin. That's right! 112 pounds! That's a whole skinny girl. Mason has been posing for pictures in the nude to draw attention to his plight. 

At his heaviest, Mason weighed in at 980 pounds, but lost 644 pounds of it through gastric bypass surgery that shrank his stomach to the size of an egg. Mason's weight loss surgery was paid for through England's National Health Service, but the removal of his excess skin is a totally different procedure that will cost around $100,000 and won't be covered until he has kept the weight off for at least two years. In the meantime, Mason says that his condition is not only embarrassing but it's also painful.

Mason says that by talking the nude photos of himself that maybe a health professional might see it and think, "It's about time we helped this chap!" He says that around his middle and on his legs, the skin keeps splitting because of the weight of it. He went onto say that people seem to think that skin will shrink back, but that isn't the case and if people find this shocking maybe they will think twice about gaining weight. The National Health Service relies on a panel of clinicians and other experts to decide whether a patient qualifies for an operation or not. According to one spokesperson, in Mason's case, he must demonstrate a stable weight before he can be considered.

Mason has been struggling with his weight since the mid-1980s, when he was in his 20s. Apparently, he started eating for comfort after a series of personal tragedies, including a breakup with a girlfriend, the death of his father and the deterioration of his mother's health. When he was at his largest, he could no longer wash himself and was forced to wear diapers, which in-home caretakers had to change for him. He underwent the gastric bypass surgery in 2010 and in three years the weight fell off. Unfortunately, he still suffers from a lack of mobility and painful sores due to the dramatic folds in his skin which are putting a damper on what he hopes will become an active life. He says, "Once I get rid of the spare skin, I also hope to be able to go swimming and cycling and join a gym and find a girlfriend.”

The story is amazing! As for the photo, I cannot seem to keep my eyes off of it. It's like watching The Jersey Shore. I can't look away! I can't be the only one looking at this picture and wondering how this guy pees, am I? I'm happy to see that Mason lost all of the weight and wants to look and feel better, but I feel bad that he actually has to walk around with all this dead skin. I hope someone in the medical field helps him soon because no one can live like this and if Mason can beat this; he'll be able to accomplish anything in life. Just for the record, though, the pictures still gross me the hell out!