The world’s fattest woman is desperate to wed her fiancée despite being twice his size at a staggering 54.6 stone.
Charity Pierce, 38 needs to shed 20 stone before the big day so she can have a life saving gastric bypass operation.
Thanks to her 22-year-old fiancée Tony Saur, Charity has already reduced her calorie intake from 10,000 to just 1,200 per day in the hope of having the wedding of her dreams.
Charity said: “I’m determined not to have to get married at home – I want to be able to walk up the aisle.
“We both love country music so I plan to wear a wedding dress, cowboy boots and cowgirl hat and Tony will be in jeans and cowboy boots.
"I want a big area, lots of people there and I want to dance all night and have the best honeymoon ever.”
However, doctors have warned Charity, who has been housebound since 2001 that without drastic measures to reduce weight, her life hangs in the balance.
She said: "I’m worried about having a heart attack or a stroke and dying in my sleep.
“My dream goal is to be 14 stone and get married to my fiancé.
"I don’t want much - I just want to have a life.”
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Doctors recently brought a set of heavy-duty scales to Charity’s home to get an idea of the challenge ahead.
And at 54.6 stone Charity beats the heaviest living woman on record - Pauline Potter - who topped the scales at 45.9 stone (643lbs) in 2011 and last year shed seven stone.
Charity said: “Seeing that figure appear on the scales was such a shock. I didn’t expect that. It was devastating."
Growing up, Charity struggled with weight problems and took to eating in secret.
She said: “I had an unhappy family life as a child and eating was the only thing I had any control over - I used to sneak junk food into the house and hide the wrappers.”
When Charity was 13, her daily diet consisted of cake for breakfast, pizza or tacos from a fast food restaurant for lunch, goulash (stew) for dinner and before bed she would eat ice-cream and cakes.
“My weight rose steadily and I was teased at school. I chose to pretend it wasn’t happening," she added.
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GRAPHIC IMAGES: World's Fattest Woman
By the age of 13 she weighed almost 20 stone but after having her daughter Charly, at 20, her weight rose to 40 stone.
In 2000 Charity slipped while coming down the stairs and her left leg became trapped beneath her weight.
She said: “I went to the ER and was told I had a hematoma, which would dissolve back into my leg.
“But instead my left leg just kept getting bigger and bigger. Two years later I was diagnosed with lymphedema.”
Struggling with her disability, Charity again turned to food for comfort and her weight continued to rise.
In 2005 she developed necrotizing fasciitis - a flesh eating bacteria – and had two-and-a-half stone of tissue removed from her side.
She said: “The surgery caused me to develop lymphedema in the back part of my hip that wasn’t affected before.
“Now I have open wounds on my side that have not healed yet."
Over the years the build up of fluid in Charity’s left leg has rendered her immobile and unable to look after herself.
As well as Tony she is cared for by her daughter, Charly, 18.
Charity said: “Being homebound is the worst thing in the world because it means you have no life.
“Tony and Charly do things they shouldn’t have to do, like clean me and cook for me. “They do it because they love me.”
Charly, said: “The idea of losing mum scares me - she could die any time but I try not to think about it.
“I’m helping by cooking healthy meals to encourage her to lose weight.”
Before she started her diet in February, 2014, Charity would eat cereal, two pizzas, two big sandwiches, five doughnuts, two plates of lasagna, a big Kit-Kat chocolate bar, a big bowl of popcorn, and Pop Tarts in one day.
But now with help from Charly she eats three yogurts, a banana with peanut butter, mixed vegetables, grilled chicken, vegetable pizza, and hummus with crackers daily.
She met her lover Tony - the younger brother of Charly’s dad Jimmy - at a party three years ago.
The pair became friends and three months later started a relationship.
Charity said: “I’d met Tony once before when he was about eight and I was 25. After Charly was born I didn’t often see Jimmy so we weren’t ever a couple.
“When I met Tony he seemed very mature for his age and we just got on.”
After months of getting to know one another the pair became an item.
Charity said: “In the beginning the age gap was an issue so we kept it a secret but we soon got tired of hiding it.”
Despite the taboo, the pair say they are going to marry as soon as Charity is eligible for the bypass operation.
She said: “When we first got together we were having sex up to four times a day but since my lymphedema is so out of control we hardly have sex at all.
“I would love my relationship to be more sexual.”
Tony said: “Charity’s size has never been an issue for me. In the beginning I didn’t give it any thought, it was only when she became immobile that it has caused problems.
“Now it is impacting on our sex life, which is difficult. I can’t wait to marry Charity. I proposed to her three times because I knew I wanted to be with her.
“I think she will be a beautiful bride. I do worry that she is going to die early but I try to support her to lose weight. I feel confident she will lose weight and have the operation."
Charity needs to drop to 35 stone to be able to have the operation.
She now works out every day for two hours, and has a physical therapist visit her three times a week.
She exercises her arms by lifting three pound weights, and walks around the house to exercise her legs.
Charity didn’t have the easiest start in life and grew up in a stern household with an alcoholic father - she began eating excessively as a way to deal with her situation.
Charity said: "My dad was a drunk, and he was really strict with me.
"We didn't get to go to our friends' houses, didn't get to go up the block - didn't get to do much of anything.
"He controlled everything my family did, and the one thing I really felt that I had control over was what I ate."
But now things are on the up as she gets ready to marry her sweetheart Tony.
She added: “I refuse to get married in my living room.
“To me that’s demeaning and it doesn’t make me feel like a normal person. It makes me feel like an outcast.
“Tony has given me hope for the first time in years and I’ll do whatever it takes to turn my life around."