70ST MAN'S OP; NHS surgery to save life of junk food addict Paul.

Byline: EMILY NASH 

A FORMER engineer who is thought to be Britain's heaviest man will have NHS surgery to save his life.

Paul Mason, 48, whose weight has hit 70st, once admitted an addiction to eating and confirmed scoffing more than three family-sized takeaways in a single day with an intake of up to 20,000 calories.

Last night NHS officials admitted they had considered using a helicopter to move him for his op.

But it is now expected Paul will be taken in a reinforced ambulance on the 152-mile trip from his home to a specialist unit for obese patients at St Richard's Hospital, Chichester, West Sussex.

Mr Mason, who is looked after by carers at his bungalow in Ipswich, refused to comment but NHS Suffolk said: "This patient is classed as super obese. It is most likely that he will be transported in a specialist ambulance. The most important aspect of transporting him is preserving his dignity and looking after his safety. We have not had anything like this before."

St Richard's Hospital has a team of specialist surgeons with a worldwide reputation for work on seriously obese patients. Paul, who is 5ft 6in tall, is expected to have his op in the next few weeks. His widowed mother Janet, 78, who was wheelchair-bound, is believed to have died around six weeks ago.

He managed to get his weight down to 45st two years ago by cutting out the takeaways but the weight is understood to have piled back on recently.

Paul was hoisted out of his former home in Ipswich by a forklift truck when he weighed 56st and had to go to hospital for a hernia operation in 2002. Firefighters took out a window and knocked down a wall.

His current hospital in Suffolk has a 4ft-wide door to allow him to be moved in and out easily in his wheelchair.

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20,000 calories a day WEIGHT FOR IT Paul Mason is on list for op