Category: Yorkshire
& N.Midlands; E.Yorkshire
& Lincolnshire
Date: 04.02.2005
Printable version
Buster Bloodvessel, the larger than life frontman of Eighties band Bad
Manners, is featured in the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE current affairs show Inside Out
(Yorkshire & N.Midlands and E.Yorkshire & Lincolnshire) this
week paying a special tribute to the Yorkshire doctor who saved his
life.
The singer, real name Douglas Trendle, 44, weighed in at a life-threatening
31 stone before the operation in Leeds last year which removed most
of his stomach.
The operation, which helped Buster get down to 13 stone, was carried
out on the NHS by Professor Michael McMahon in the Leeds Nuffield Hospital
after other doctors had turned him down - afraid he would not survive.
Bloodvessel, whose band has had hits with Lip Up Fatty, Special Brew
and Can Can, tells Inside Out (Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE Yorkshire & N.Midlands and E.Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, Monday 7 February, 7.30pm) that
he has been given a new lease of life.
He says: "I feel a million dollars, I cannot thank the doctor enough.
I was living up to an image - people expected Buster to be huge.
"I always thought there might be a miracle cure round the corner.
It's like someone has said - here's life again."
Surgeons elsewhere feared that Buster was so fat he would die on the
operating table, but Professor McMahon pioneered this extraordinary
operation in Leeds.
He believes some obese people cannot lose weight purely by dieting
- they are clinically ill.
Inside Out shows the Professor explaining the intricacies of the operation
to Buster when the singer - who is renowned for his energetic stage
acts - pays a special visit to Leeds.
Bloodvessel, who once owned a hotel in Margate, Kent, called Fatty
Towers, formed Bad Manners in 1979.
The group still tours and the TV show uses footage from concerts in
Bradford and Scunthorpe.
