Ten years ago Turi was in Middlemore Hospital, close to death. We weighed in at 261 kilograms.

His weight was killing him.

After three steps Turi was out of breath. He needed to drive to his letterbox to collect the mail. He lost his job because he was too big to work. His fridge was stolen and had to live on canned food because he couldn’t afford a new one.

“I lost my job because I was too big… It was a hard lesson,” he said, “a lesson that I had to take this seriously.”

 Even with the huge odds against him Turi was determined to have a better life.

During his time at Middlemore Turi lost 73 kilograms and spent a year recovering from the health issues caused by obesity.

“I didn’t want to go back to hospital again, but I went home and ate what I had always eaten.”

His friends had noticed as Turi got bigger and bigger and bigger. He noticed too, but he denied it. What he didn’t know was that he was killing himself day by day with what he was putting in his mouth.

“I was a taxi driver,” says Turi. “I would take children with disabilities to and from school and every day. Then I would stop at the dairy and pick up a couple of litres of fizzy drink and some pies. I would stop for lunch, maybe eat a roast chicken in the park and have some more fizzy drink. I didn’t know that it was the food that was making me sick.”

After two more stays in Middlemore Hospital for life-threatening weight-related problems Turi met an old friend and a health promotion worker, Viane. She had also known him decades before as a much slimmer man in his youth.

Vaine’s support was exactly what Turi was in need of to change his ways.

“I asked him if he needed help” says Vaine, “and he answered ‘Yes please, I need it very much’.”

Vaine taught Turi about what he should be eating and how much he should be eating. She helps by telling him about healthy foods, and what he needs to cut out.

He cut out fizzy completely. “At first I thought water was sour but that was just because I was used to drinking so much sweet stuff. Now I fill up my big water bottles from the water filter at Church and carry them home. I eat salad and tuna every day and I cook some simple meals himself like curries but without the coconut milk.”

“Sometimes he’ll text me from a family function,” says Vaine, “when he needs support to keep away from food that will make him ill or I’ll encourage him to just have a little bit.”

“Turi is one of the weight loss champions at our Church. And out of all the people I help Turi is the most committed and motivated to losing weight. I think it is because he has been so close to death.”

Turi’s weight loss and Vaine’s support has been a long journey. It has required commitment to Turi’s health every day for the last eighteen months, “and the virtue of discipline,” says Vaine.

And according to Turi, Vaine’s support has been “Magic!”

 “Big people like Turi need support from people around them, because that much weight loss is not going to happen over a few months. They need ongoing support and encouragement” says Vaine.

Turi now walks every day and he swims with the Church group every Sunday. “I tell the other big men not to be shy about getting active, I used to be as big as you.”

Now Turi weighs 137 kilograms. He has lost 124 kilograms, almost half his body weight.

Turi is a quiet man, but his smile is very broad. “I am happy now. I would like to be 75kg like I was in my youth,. But my goal is to be 100 kilograms. Then I will be very happy!” says Turi. “And I will be able to go back to work.”