Trust Secretary – Lianne MacDonald

My name’s Lianne and I’m a food addict!  Okay now that’s out of the way here’s my story.

I was born in 1962 the  youngest in a family of 5 children. I was the only overweight one in my family, my three sisters have always been slim and so was my brother until he had major abdominal surgery. 

My mother always ‘encouraged’ me to try to lose weight but I always felt it was criticism and felt pressured to try something and then would ‘fail’ and so the weight yo-yo’d over the years growing up. Consequently I didn’t tell my family about the surgery until my eligibility was confirmed. I would recommend that anyone contemplating the surgery tell at least one good friend or family member so that they can attend appointments with you and they will also be informed of what you can expect and can help you through any hurdles.

When I married and left home I had the ‘freedom’ to buy and eat what I wanted and so my weight ballooned further from 80kg on my wedding day in 1986 to about 130kg at my heaviest around 2008. 

I was fortunate to be offered surgery through the public health system and almost 6 months from the date that I went to the information session I had my surgery (gastric sleeve) on 26 August 2009, my surgeon was Richard Babor. 

Most people don’t have any complications post weight loss surgery, but I have had a few and still do but I wont go into detail, however I do say to people thinking about surgery to make sure that everything is in order beforehand.

In total I lost about 51kg but unfortunately have put some of this back on and continue to battle to get it off again but I am not a quitter and will not give up. Since surgery I have walked two half marathons and a number of 5-10km walking events which is something I never would have dreamed of pre-op. 

In my spare time I enjoy walking, reading, listening to music, and catching up with friends either locally or on the internet. In the past I have volunteered on www.pogo.com helping players and getting rid of the problem players. I also volunteered as a backgammon tournament host on a few different sites. So if you play backgammon don’t hesitate to ask me for a game, although I’m a bit rusty now. Cheers!