Inside ‘town without hope’ where women have lowest life expectancy in UK & flee to Turkey for life-saving surgery

BEFORE she flew to Turkey in 2021 for a £3,500 gastric bypass op, at her heaviest mum Michelle Humphreys genuinely feared for her life. Not only was her health suffering as a direct result of her size and weight - she was 18st 7lb and a size 22 - but also she was born and bred in the town where women have the lowest life expectancy in the UK. Shockingly, women in Brynmawr, South East Wales, on average aren’t expected to reach 79.

That's four years lower than the life expectancy across England, which is now 83 for women, Office for National Statistics data shows. Not long ago it was a thriving market town where people reaped the benefits of hard work and a close community where neighbours looked out for each other. But today the town looks almost derelict. Hotels and pubs have shut down and shops have been replaced by takeaways.

Some locals say the town has been “abandoned” and people have “lost hope”. Life expectancy for women in Blaenau Gwent, where Brynmawr stands, is 78.9 years, the ONS says. A range of factors have contributed to this depressing statistic - from obesity and lack of exercise, to the use of hard drugs and heavy smoking. It's a socially deprived area where people can't see a way out. There’s a lot of despondency in the Welsh valleys due to the closure of big industry - coal and steel - and a lack of jobs to take its place.

People die before their time here, it’s sad to see but they don’t look after themselves. No one has their five-a-day. Just 35 miles away in Hereford, women can expect to live 83.6 years - almost a five-year difference. “Perhaps I’ll move to Hereford then,” says Denise Brain, 58, who is still recovering from open heart surgery. “People die before their time here, it’s sad to see but they don’t look after themselves. No one has their five-a-day.”.

One takeaway in the area reported that it regularly delivers three meals a day to the same household. And some locals were shocked to see a mum arriving at Greggs every morning by council-paid taxi to give her children their breakfast before school. Four out of five people are overweight or obese in the county. It's such a problem, a special weight management clinic has been set up to tackle the obesity epidemic.

As a result of the issue, 'hundreds' of women here have reportedly desperately tried to increase their lifespans - by flying to Turkey to have gastric bypass ops. Michelle Humphreys, 58, runs a dressmakers and haberdashery in the town square where she spends a lot of her working life altering clothes to fit ever-growing female customers. She can empathise with those struggling, as not long ago the mum-of-three was 18st 11lb and a dress size 22.

Michelle said: “I put it on over the years but to me I never seemed to eat that much. "It was my metabolism, sometimes the only thing I would eat all day is cornflakes, but I would have takeaways at weekends, a pizza or a Chinese. “I didn’t realise how unwell I was until I got to Turkey and the doctors. carried out tests which showed I was diabetic.”. Michelle heard about a friend who had travelled to Turkey for the weight loss op and went on to the internet to investigate.

Husband Darryl, a council bin man, backed her and Michelle drew £3,500 from their savings to catch a flight. She says: “It saved my life. I wouldn’t be here now if I hadn’t had the gastric bypass. "I witness the obesity crisis here every day - women come into the shop suffering from health problems due to their size. "A lot of large women come in to have their clothing altered. "There’s nothing around here to help people, they closed the leisure centre down and you can’t get a doctor’s appointment.

"What we do have is lots of takeaways - there are 12 here already and we are about to get two more, including a Burger King. “I had dangerously high blood pressure before I went and then the medical team out there found I had Type II diabetes. “When the surgeon was operating he found a lesion on my liver, he removed that for free.”. Non-smoker Michelle said she has a new lease of life after returning to Brynmawr and now hopes she's significantly increased her life expectancy.

She explains: “Before I went I couldn’t walk 100 yards, but a week after coming back I did seven miles. “I’ve dropped 8st 9lbs. I’m now 10st 2lbs and a size 12, and feel like a new woman. “I actually eat more now than I did before the operation and I’ve changed my lifestyle because I don’t want to get to that size again. “I can name at least 30 women from these parts who have been to Turkey for gastric surgery. There must be hundreds across Blaenau Gwent.".

Michelle says she hates living in her home town Brynmawr and finds it depressing'. She and Darryl, 57, have a three-bedroom flat above the shop which they bought for £125,000 three years ago. On a tea break from her Stitch-in-Time shop, grandmother-of-seven Michelle said: “Unless you want a takeaway or a haircut there’s nothing here. "I was brought up in the town and I’ve watched it slowly die.