A young Moncton man who has lost half of his body weight is looking to the province for support in the final stages of his transformation.
Connor Terry, 22, of Moncton weighed 435 lbs at one point, but has now lost a staggering 225 lbs over the past two years.
“I basically halved myself off,” he said.
He said that he lost the weight by changing his diet and hitting the gym and is now training as a powerlifter.
He said that he hopes to represent his country one day.
“My big goal is to be able to qualify and kind of go up the ranks for it to qualify for Team Canada,” he said.
However, before he makes it to the big stage, he hopes to get support from the province to have the excess skin left behind on his abdomen and back surgically removed.
But he discovered that skin removal surgery following significant weight loss is not covered by Medicare in New Brunswick.
“It was a little bit of a burn to me because you work really hard for something, and at that point, it is not cosmetic. It is quality of life at this point,” he said.
He said the leftover skin gets caught up, causing bruising, and he wants it gone for good.
“I will also need it on my back too because where I was so big, it pushed on each side of my body,” he said.
The procedure will cost about $20,000 and Terry is trying to raise the funds on his own through a GoFundMe campaign. So far, he has managed to raise $4,000.
After losing so much weight, Terry said that his overall health has improved dramatically and he would like to be less of a burden on the health-care system, which is why he believes the province should be rewarding people who are proactive about their health.
“There would be an incentive for people to actually want to do something healthy for themselves,” he said.
According to a spokesperson from the Department of Health, the procedure “would only be covered if considered medically necessary.”
Terry said that having the surgery is not about improving his appearance, it’s about bettering his quality of life.
“It is not something aesthetic to me. It is for my life now,” he said.
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