'I shed half my body weight but I regret it - I'm left with agonising elephant stumps'

Mum Claudette Hawk lost a whopping 11st thanks to surgery but sadly says she can't even look at herself in the mirror due to 21lbs of painful, sagging skin

A woman who lost an incredible 11st has been left in agony after being left with 20lbs of excess skin.

Mum Claudette Hawk can't bring herself to look in the mirror, explaining how she's been left with 'cow udders and elephant stumps' after reaching her goal weight.

After gaining weight following her first pregnancy at 19, Claudette weighed 22st 8lbs at her heaviest and wore a size 36. But she managed to shed half of her body weight thanks to gastric sleeve surgery - although she has since lived to regret her decision.

Claudette, from New York, US, managed to shrink down to 11st 9lbs and a size 10, but she has so much saggy skin that her confidence is in tatters.

Speaking in 2023, Claudette said: "When I looked in the mirror when I was heavy, I [was able to look at myself]. Now I don't like looking in the mirror other than at my face. I don't like my body at all. It's horrendous. I used to have a nice set of breasts, now I look like I have cow udders. I try not to look at my body.

"I have no boobs, they are flat and hang down. I roll them up and put them in the bra so it looks like I have boobs but I don't. They're nothing you'd want to look at. The tops of my legs are like elephant stumps, they're very heavy with the skin hanging there."

The mum-of-two plucked up the courage to have a gastric sleeve in 2019 when her size stopped her playing with her granddaughter and she had to crawl up the stairs to her flat.

Now the weight has dropped off, but the flower delivery driver says she felt more attractive when she was big and is so self-conscious that she won't let her truck driver husband Thomas, 65, see her naked.

The couple got married 40 years ago and had an active sex life until she started losing weight. She desperately fundraised for surgery to remove the painful excess skin and hit her goal figure of £12,000 ($15,000).

Claudette continued: "I'm more self-conscious about my body now than I was when I was bigger. I would never go out in shorts or a t-shirt. I wear compression hosiery, sleeves, a belt around my belly.

"It affects intimacy. I don't let my husband see me without clothes on. I did when I was bigger. It's hard because we did have a pretty active sex life when I was heavier which I'm still trying to wrap my mind around. I feel like I'm not attractive to him now with my body looking the way it is, which is why we don't."

The gran raised money to have the excess skin removed, the muscles in her stomach tightened and a boob job in the hopes she'll be able to turn her love life around. Since starting the GoFundMe in 2023, it is unclear whether she has had surgery, but the fundraiser reached its goal.

Claudette added at the time: "I'm hoping the surgery will change things but there's no guarantee. The skin gives me rashes where the skin is overlapping and there's a funky smell. It's a constant thing. The extra skin on my arms pulls and the gravity makes everything heavier and harder to do things. It can be painful so I wear a lot of compression garments.

"The surgery is quite expensive. I think I would be able to look at myself and emotionally happier because even when I take a shower, I get in and out. It would save time because I wouldn't have to use all the compressions. I have to get my body all secure so it takes me a while to get dressed."

Claudette says her body went into shock after the gastric sleeve surgery meaning she wasn't able to exercise, which she thinks may have contributed to the excess skin.

She says that although she doesn't regret the surgery because it has allowed her to lose weight and keep up with her granddaughter, the extra skin leaves her in pain and tires her out.

Claudette concluded: "In 2016 the weight really started causing me problems with walking, I could barely walk up the stairs to my apartment, I would practically crawl. I have a granddaughter that I couldn't do as much with. My doctors never mentioned my weight so in my head I had nothing to worry about.

"When it started to impede what I could do and I basically never left the house and couldn't participate with my granddaughter I wanted to change. I had a horrific experience with the sleeve but I never regretted having it no matter how bad I felt because I was losing weight. It took my body a really long time to adjust.

"I knew there would be excess skin because I was overweight for so long and I was told as long as after the surgery I exercised it wouldn't be so bad but I couldn't exercise because I was in bad shape. It wears me out."

You can visit Claudette's GoFundMe by clicking here.

A version of this story was originally published in April 2023.