Rise in obesity hospital admissionspublished at 11:30 British Summer Time 11 April 2017
A woman who paid privately for weight loss reduction surgery says she would have died without the treatment.
There were more than 780 admissions in Sussex, Kent and Surrey last year, a 6% rise on the year before.
In a programme tonight on BBC2 Karen Hardwicke, from East Sussex, describes the choice she had to make in deciding whether to wait or pay for her own surgery.
We'll have more on this on BBC South East Today at 18:30 BST.