She was Britain’s fattest teenager, weighing an incredible 63st in her late teens. Then she suffered the double heatbreak of losing her mum and pet dog.
But now Georgia Davis is ‘happier than she’s been for years’, having moved from her specially adapted flat and lost ‘quite a bit of weight’, a friend and former neighbour revealed.
Ms Davis was very close to her mother, Lesley – who was also morbidly obese and blamed for her daughter’s enormous size.
She died two years ago, leaving Ms Davis grief-stricken, followed ten months later by her beloved dog Bailey.
Friend and former neighbour Amy Hodges said: ‘She was in a terrible state for a while and that didn’t help her problems.
‘But something good has come out of it, Georgia has made new friends and lost quite a lot of weight. She’s happier than she’s been for years.’
Ms Davis was virtually a prisoner in her own home – a tiny ground floor flat in the village of Cwmaman, near Aberdare in South Wales.
She made headlines at 19 whem she had to be lifted out of the flat by a crane and loaded into a reinforced ambulance after she developed breathing problems and chest pains.
Georgia Davis, pictured at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Merthyr South Wales when she was 19 years old and weighed 56st
Aged 17, Georgia weighed around 40st and was given the dubious distinction of being Britain’s fattest teenager
Aged 22, Georgia was rescued from her home by ten firemen, four paramedics, a doctor and a nurse in a seven-hour operation
Doctors warned her she would die if she didn’t stop eating multiple takeaways and bagfulls of Greggs pastries every day.
Mother-of-two Ms Hodges said Georgia continued to battle with her weight.
She said: ‘I’ve known her six years and she was always up and down. Some days she would be down in the dumps and you wouldn’t see her and then she’d have days when she would have a little walk in the garden.
‘After her mum and the dog died it broke her heart and she had nothing to stay here for. She was born somewhere in England and has a brother there so that’s where she went.
‘She moved about six months ago, she’s living with friends. Wherever she is, she’s out and about with her friends, they take her places and she’s happy.
‘Georgia’s loving it, she’s more active and she’s not so lonely. She missed her mum but she’s got company again now.
‘She’s dieting and she’s lost quite a bit of weight.’
Georgia’s eating disorders were triggered by the death of her father Geoff when she was five and the pressure of becoming the main carer for her mother Lesley at the age of 10.
Georgia, now 32, pictured in March this year. She has recently moved away from Wales and has started a new life after the death of her mother
Georgia, pictured recently, is said to have found a new lease of life after battling heartbreak when her mother and beloved dog both died
A mother and her grown-up disabled son have moved into Georgia’s specially adapted flat which was fitted with extra-large French windows at the front in case she had to be winched out again.
Ms Hodges said: ‘Georgia tells me she has lots of company.
‘She has a new life so I’m really happy for her. Georgia’s a really lovely person.
‘We are still in touch on Facebook, she messages me most days to ask about me and the kids.’
Georgia’s issues started in early childhood.
When her daughter wouldn’t take formula milk, her mother fed her condensed milk. Georgia’s weaned diet consisted of little more than mashed tinned potatoes.
Aged 5, her father Geoff died and Georgia started comfort eating to ease her pain.
‘When he died, food became a sort of comfort for me,’ Georgia admitted. ’When I was eating I felt less unhappy.’
Georgia was left devastated when her dog Bailey died in 2024
Georgia Davis as a young girl with her father Geoff. She previously described how she started comfort eating to cope with his death
Georgia, pictured in 2017, a year after she moved into her own specially-built council home
Already teased for being a ‘fatty’ at primary school, the more she ate the more she was ridiculed and the more isolated she felt. So the more she ate again.
By the age of ten, Georgia weighed 12st and alarm bells were ringing sufficiently loudly for her to be placed on the ‘at risk’ register with social services.
Two years later, when Georgia was 12, her mother suffered a heart attack. Georgia’s stepfather Arthur was older and ill himself, so she became her mother’s main carer.
The strain took further toll and by the time she started secondary school Georgia was piling on ever more weight.
‘A lot of things came to a head then,’ she said. ‘I’d never really dealt with my dad’s death and I was also now caring for my mum and worrying about her health. I felt under a huge amount of pressure.’
Most nights Georgia would consume a takeaway or two on the way home from school — pizza or fish and chips being her favourites — before munching her way through the contents of the kitchen cupboards.
‘It didn’t matter what it was. Crisps. Chocolate. Entire loaves of bread. I ate anything, really,’ she said.
Doctors warned her — and Lesley — time and again that there would be severe consequences if she carried on eating, yet carry on she did, arriving at a record-breaking 33st in the autumn of 2008, still some months short of her 16th birthday.
Georgia as a teenager with her mother Lesley, who admitted she felt ‘guilty’ over her daughter’s weight
Georgia pictured in 2011 after regaining the weight she’d lost at a weight-loss camp in the US
The teenager had lost 15 stone in this picture taken after her visit to a US weight loss camp
Lesely spoke of her ‘guilt’ over her daughter’s weight and said she had made a determined effort to change their diets – such as making her own chips instead of buying them from the takeaway.
‘I wish I could turn back the clock. But if you’ve never had food addiction, you can’t understand. You try to fight it but it’s like a drug.’
Georgia told reporters at the time: ‘Some people choose heroin but I’ve chosen food and it’s killing me.’
She detailed her daily diet, revealing she would eat ‘a couple of loaves-worth of sandwiches filled with jam or cheese or meat’ every day.
This was in addition to five bags of cheese and onion crisps, two packets of chocolate bourbons, sponge cake, trifle chocolate cake, and four sausages with mashed potato and baked beans for dinner, as well as fizzy drinks.
The nurse at her doctor’s surgery tried to help, and told the family about a U.S. weight-loss camp and encouraged her to apply for a scholarship.
She was accepted, and in September 2008 Georgia travelled to the mountains of North Carolina with 60 other overweight teenagers, all forced to adhere to the camp’s structured timetable of strict mealtimes and a rigorous exercise regime.
The regime helped her to lose an incredible 14st. After nine months, she had shed almost half her body weight and slimmed down to 18st.
She intended to lose more weight too, but returned home in June 2009 to support her mother after learning that Arthur had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
The plan was to return to Wellsprings for a further three months to shed another 6st, but that never happened and she soon fell back into her old habits.
By October 2010, she was heavier than she had been before flying to the US.
Aged 17, Georgia’s story hit the headlines when it was revealed that she was Britain’s fattest teenager at 40st.
When Georgia was 19, she needed hospital care but had to be cut out of her home because it was the only way to remove her from the property.
Despite needing urgent care, she had to wait eight hours as walls were knocked down before she could be carried from her home into an ambulance.
Her family reported that she was no longer able to stand up and was suffering with sores and swelling in her feet.
The operation to cut into her home cost emergency workers an estimated £100,000.
At the time, neighbours said they believed she weighed around 63 stone, but added that it was impossible to know her true weight as it would require a specialist scale to measure.
In April 2015, she again needed to be rescued from her house in a seven-hour operation involving two cranes, seven police cars, two fire engines and 11 medics had to lift her from her home for a seven-hour operation after she picked up a severe infection.
Her weight on arrival at hospital was recorded as 56st.
After battling to save her life, doctors put her on a controlled diet in hospital and she was later moved to a specialist obesity clinic.
In 2016, it was reported that she was moving into a specially-designed council flatwith a double front door, and widened rooms and corridors and her weight was 50st.
