Slim or die man sheds 44 stone

Lose weight or die!

That's the stark ultimatum doctors delivered to a 39-year-old Englishman, who grew to a colossal 60 stone.

Colin Corfield's battle for survival was the subject of a poignant and moving ITV television documentary.

Filmed over two-and-a-half years, 'Lose 30 Stone or Die' depicts his bid to reclaim his life after drug and alcohol problems in his early 20s sent his weight spiraling out of control.

The Runcorn pub landlord in Cheshire was warned two years ago that his own body fat could suffocate him.

So he decided to take drastic action and have risky gastric surgery. It has proved such a success that he has now shrunk to 16 stone!

In the TV program screened in December 2007 he said life was "fantastic" and he was looking forward to his first real Christmas in decades.

"I won't be stuck in a corner watching everyone else, feeling like I'm putting people out. It's my first Christmas as the new me."

While Colin has a new appetite for life and can walk everywhere, work properly, socialise and feels good about myself, it wasn't always that way.

As a teenager he found it hard to deal with a drinking domineering father and he turned to food for comfort.

He was obese by the time he reached 30 and when he began running his own pub, his weight spiraled out of control. "I was a big fella so I could drink 20, 30 pints in a day and not get drunk," he recalled.

He ate takeaways at 2am. He snacked on crisps, chocolates and diners all day.
He tried diets and several times managed to lose 10 stone, but then he would put it back on again.

By the autumn of 2005, Colin was so big he couldn't leave his bed and simple tasks like going to the toilet and getting washed were impossible for him.

"I'd never let anyone weigh me. But I must have been 60 stone. I couldn't walk more than a few steps or go out," he remembered.

Whenever I could, he would go up on the roof and hose myself down with a hosepipe "like an animal" and he would use a bucket for a toilet.

Nights were especially dangerous. Colin needed an oxygen mask so his weight wouldn't crush his lungs.

"It was degrading. I was so depressed. I couldn't see the point of going on," he said, admitting he had contemplated suicide.

Then he saw a TV programme about gastric surgery and thought it would work for him.

His family found a surgeon willing to cut away most of his stomach and his mother sold her bungalow to raise the necessary £32,000.

But despite Colin cutting down on alcohol and food, and slimming to 48 stone, the surgeons' instruments were too small to cope with his size when they tried an operation in November 2005.

"I was distraught," Colin said, told he had to lose another 10 stone.

He went back to his diet and hired out a local pool to swim in private.

He reached his target weight of 38 stone in November 2006 and the drastic surgery finally went ahead.

The doctors had warned him that one in 19 people die during the procedure but Colin was happy to take the risk. If I hadn't he would have died anyway, he believed.

Colin has now been left with a stomach the size of an egg, enough for him to survive on. Instead of a large cooked breakfast, he now begins his day with a single Weetabix. He has also replaced the pints with an occasional Southern Comfort.

"Food isn't a big deal for me anymore. I was addicted but now I am full after my small meal. Now I feel fantastic.

"I was very, very sad at the time I was heavy. But I'm not sad anymore - I've got my life back.

"I can go back and watch the match at Everton. I used to do it all the time before I got too big to get through the turnstile," said Colin.

Werewolf boy appeals to doctors to find a cure

An 11-year-old "werewolf" boy who desperately seeks a cure for his condition is baffling medical experts.

Pruthviraj Patil is one of 50 in the world who suffers from hypertrichosis, a rare genetic condition known as Werewolf Syndrome.

As a result his face and body is covered in thick, matted hair.

But he is hoping doctors will one day find a cure for his ailment.

Born in the Indian district of Sangli, near Bombey, he hardly ever leaves his village because of his fear of being traunted by strangers.

The only parts of his body that are not covered with hair are the palms of his hands and soles of his feet.

The son of a well off farmer, his parents have tried homeopathy, traditional Ayurvedic remedies and laser surgery. But none of them have worked.

It is believe his genetic condition was caused by a flaw during pregnancy.

"Why did God do this to us," his 32-year-old mother Anita pleads. "He looks so odd and whever we go people throng to see him."

Plastic surgeon Vinay6 Saoji has examined the boy and confirms that the condition is very rare.

"Hairy nevus, where a person has patches of excess growth, or hirsurism, is not uncommon, but hair persisting all over the body is very rare," he added.

Pruthviraj says he is anxious to get the hair removed but even after laser treatment it simply grows back.

The doctors don't have any answers to his predicament.

When he first went to school he said he got bullied and the other children laughed at him. But now they have got used to him and they treat him like normal.

He appealed to the doctors to help find him a permanent cure.

Ugly scenes as 12 million bees escape after California crash

It must have been a driver's worst nightmare - cruising down the highway and suddenly running smack into millions of angry swarming bees.

The bees were on the loose in California after a truck in which they were being transported flipped on its side on the highway.

The California Highway Patrol said eight to 12 million of the honey bees escaped from the crates in which they were stored.

The truck was carrying over 400 beehives with 30,000 bees in each.

The bees stung police officers, fire crews, and tow truck drivers trying to corral them after the accident.

"People were being stung left and right. It was an ugly, ugly scene," one police officer said.

The great escape happened near Sacramento and the insects swarmed over an area of Highway 99.

For seven hours authorities brought in handlers who used smoke in a bid to calm the bees and coax them back into the hives.

Several beekeepers driving past the accident stopped to help the emergency services deal with the bees.

The highway had to be closed for a period.

Police did not know what caused the tractor trailer carrying the bees to flip over while entering the highway on its way to Yakima, Washington. But they said they believe the driver may have been driving too fast.

The bees had been used to pollinate crops in the San Joaquin Valley.

The honeybee is the world's premier pollinator and is invaluable to farmers for pollination.

But there has been a shortage of them in recent times because of "Colony Collapse Disorder". US beekeepers have been losing thousands of their bees, puzzling scientists. This has led to a rise in honey prices and has also threatened fruit and vegetable production.

After a seven-hour clean-up operation at Sacramento, police were unable to say how many bees remained unaccounted for. But they were not getting any calls from panicked drivers. "No news is good news," one officer said.