Death of obese daughter spurs heartbroken parents to help another teenager

SAMANTHA Packham, 20, “didn’t think she was that big” and couldn’t stop eating. It ended up costing her everything.

HEARTBROKEN parents of a young woman who died at the age of 20 weighing 254 kilograms are hoping to save another obese teenager before she suffers the same fate.

Malcolm Packham, 44, and Jan Cowan, 49, from Brighton in the UK, struggled to control their daughter Samantha’s eating habits from an early age and told of the devastating moment they discovered her lifeless body.

Samantha, who had learning difficulties, passed away in hospital in July after her heart gave way and doctors were unable to save her.

Mum Jan told last Britain’s Channel 5 program Danger: Teen Bingers that her daughter “didn’t have the strength to fight anymore”.

She said: “She just wanted to go to sleep.

“You don’t believe it, I tried poking her, shaking her, I even tried opening her eyes but she had gone.”

Her tearful dad added: “Her body knew it was time, it had had enough.”

Jan revealed how Samantha had a problem with food from the age of eight and piled on the pounds in adolescence.

She remained in denial about the devastating impact her eating habits could have on her health.

Jan said: “We tried scaring her and saying, ‘One day this could kill you,’ but she said, ‘You are exaggerating, it wouldn’t come to that, I’m not that big’.”

The couple explained they would hide junk food around the house so their daughter couldn’t find it and pleaded with her to eat healthily, but Samantha would go out and binge on fat-laden snacks.

When Jan and Malcolm felt they could no longer help her, Samantha was taken into care.

But the intervention didn’t help and Samantha gained five stone a year in the final three years of her life before her body finally gave up.

Her tormented parents said they wished they could have done more to save her and are desperate to stop other teenagers going down the same path as their daughter.

During the Channel 5 show they travelled to Chesterfield to meet 14-year-old Holly, who weighs a whopping 107 kilograms.

Samantha was a similar size at Holly’s age and suffered similar body issues.

Samantha’s mum Jan, far right, has offered to help obese 14-year-old Holly, second from right, from suffering the same fate as her daughter.

Holly confided that she struggles to get out of bed in the morning and detests going out in public as she is ashamed of how big she is.

She hasn’t been to school in months and refuses to open up about how she is feeling, evading questions from her parents about her weight gain.

Her mum Kirsty is desperately concerned about her daughter’s future.

Kirsty explained: “She is very beautiful I just wish she knew it.

“I don’t know why she hasn’t been going to school, she is a closed book.

“A lot of people ask if she has been bullied and she’s not.”

Holly’s story strikes a disturbing chord with Jan, who said Samantha would also hide information about her eating habits and tended to binge in secret.

During the show Holly confided in Jan, admitting she was scared of how her life will turn out if she doesn’t lose weight but doesn’t know where to start, which leads her to comfort eat.

She said: “My biggest fear is not being able to do anything, not losing any weight, staying the way I am and not getting a job and just being lonely for the rest of my life.

“I feel like sometimes I sit in my room and cry and I feel like I can’t do it anymore.

“I don’t like the way I am, I want to change but I can’t.

“I feel like I can’t go out of the house as everyone will judge me for who I am.”

Jan offered Holly the advice and confidence boost she wished she could have given her own daughter before obesity took hold.

She sighed: “These are all the feelings Sam had.

“At her funeral there were hundreds of people and they were all crying.

“Sam told me she didn’t feel loved but if she had been in that church she would have known how much people loved her.

“I would do anything to go back six months.

“You are 14, you have your whole life ahead.

“Do you really want to shut yourself away and keep feeling how you are feeling?

“I don’t want to see your family bury you.”

Studies have found that obese children who don’t slim by the age of 18 are unlikely to ever reach a healthy weight in adulthood and set themselves up for a lifetime of health issues.

If you are overweight or obese, visit your doctor to find out if you are at increased risk of health problems.

This story originally appeared in The Sun

Originally published as Death of obese daughter spurs heartbroken parents to help another teenager