Claire, aged 34, BMI 36

In 2006, I finally reached the end of my tether. I'd done everything to get my weight down and under control. I went to my GP for diet pills, and he told me about the stomach balloon. It sounded really good, but I couldn't get it through the NHS.

I searched the internet and found a few clinics in the UK that were doing it, but they all charged anything from five to eight thousand pounds. This was way out of my league.

Then I saw a site offering balloons in Poland for only £2,000. I decided to go ahead with this, and went over to Poland in September. The procedure went fine, and I came back home two days later.

There was no real follow-up or help or instructions on what to do, and I did suffer with a lot of tummy cramps and acid which was pretty scary. Eventually they settled down, but I did not lose as much weight as I had hoped. I remembered reading that my balloon had to come out at about six months, but when I contacted the clinic, they said that I had to pay extra for that, and go over to Poland again. Or they said I could get it removed in the UK. I started to feel that I had made a mistake. I couldn't afford to go back to Poland so I looked around over here.

I found the National Gastric Balloon Centre web site and they had a specific page for people just like me. It seems I was not on my own.They were very helpful and arranged a very fair package for me to have support and mentoring for the remaining time with my balloon and for it to be removed. I was able to do this through one of their loans which was even better.

I really wish I had gone to them in the first place. Going to another country for my balloon was neither cheap nor easy in the long run. I'm not sure it was all that safe either.

One thing I do know for sure is that I would've got a much better result with my balloon if I'd gone to the National Gastric Balloon Centre in the beginning.

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