WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg man has set up a GoFundMe page with his sights set on raising $20,000 to help him get surgery to remove the excess skin left after he lost more than 200 pounds in less than two years.
Chris Gair tells CTV Winnipeg that back in 2013 when he weighed 412 pounds, his doctor told him he needed to lose a lot or he'd be dead by the age of 36.
Gair says despite his depression over his situation, he started going to a local gym and began an intense regimen of working out.
Now he weighs just 202 pounds, but it's left him with a torso full of unsightly excess skin.
Surgery to remove it costs about $30,000 and health care only covers one third of that.
The procedure is considered plastic surgery, which the government doesn't fully cover unless it's deemed medically necessary.
"They are covering a third, so that's nice," Gair says. "But it is frustrating that I just can't get the whole amount covered."
His trainers at the gym can’t believe how fast his weight is falling off.
"He's a beast, the guy's unreal," says trainer Gary McLeod. "Like, cardio up the wazoo."
“To see someone go through it all, no complaints at all, with a smile every time, it makes me smile more,” says trainer Megan Maes.
