Window Cleaners: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good...

Norwich man's diabetes cured by weight loss: A Lakenham window cleaner has managed to transform his health after losing more than five stone. John Batterbee used to take eight tablets and two insulin injections a day for his type 2 diabetes, but no longer needs any treatment. His high blood pressure has improved and so has his sleep apnoea. The 38-year-old, who has his own window cleaning business, was due to have drastic weight loss surgery when one of his customers, Hayley Hooper, suggested he join her Slimming World Group. In the past 28 weeks he has lost 5st 3lb and gone from 20st 5lb to 15st 2lb.
He said: “I had a bad experience a few years ago at a different club when I got put down in front of everyone, and I decided that sort of thing was not for me. I have had a problem with people who tell you to lose weight when they haven't been there themselves. But I found out that Hayley had lost weight on that diet as well and that changed my attitude a bit. I went along and it has been brilliant ever since.” Now he has swapped deep-fried chips for oven chips and thrown out the deep fat frier. He uses a low-fat cooking spray for frying and snacks on fruit and vegetables instead of crisps and pasties.
He said: “The health benefits are amazing. I feel quite annoyed I let myself that way to start with. I don't like looking fat and I hate looking at pictures of how I used to be. “My ideal weight is still three stone off, and that still seems like a long way. But my target when I joined Slimming World was 15st and I am only 2lb off that.” When he went to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for his annual diabetes check last year, the doctor warned him that he had to improve his health. Mr Batterbee said: “I told him 'I am really struggling with my weight, I have almost given up.' When he suggested weight loss surgery I just jumped at it, it was what I wanted to hear.”
Mr Batterbee, who is married to Sharon and has a 10-year-old son and two adult stepsons, had been referred to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital for weight loss surgery, and was due to have a gastric bypass. But by the time he had an appointment there he had joined Slimming World and had already lost two stone, though he was still eligible for surgery. When he returned for a pre-operation check-up two weeks ago he had lost more weight and was told he no longer needed surgery. He is currently waiting for the results of tests to show whether his diabetes has gone completely. He said: “If I had had the surgery there would have been major side-effects. It is brilliant not to want or need that now.”
About 31,000 people in Norfolk (excluding Great Yarmouth and Waveney) have diabetes, and around 2,300 people are diagnosed with diabetes each year. It is estimated that at least half of all diabetes cases could be prevented if adults kept their weight to a healthy level. Khin Swe Myint, consultant physician in diabetes at the N&N, said: “I am very pleased with John's progress. He has lost a substantial amount of weight through his own efforts and this has led to a reduction in the medication he needs, including insulin.
“There are many benefits to weight loss for patients with diabetes who will feel much better and have more energy. Patients commonly require less medication for blood pressure, diabetes and indeed sometimes may also cure their sleep apnoea which could be associated with being overweight.” Hayley Hooper, who runs the Slimming World Poringland Group, said: “I am really proud of John and the support the members of the group have given him each week.”

The Bad....

Jailed Liverpudlian heroin courier & window cleaner claimed he was forced at gunpoint to make trip to Shetland: The latest Liverpudlian heroin courier to be jailed at Lerwick Sheriff Court said he was forced at gunpoint to make the trip to Shetland in punishment for having beaten up a man with drug gangster connections. To avoid having his legs broken in revenge David Garnett, 39, of Lawrence Road, Liverpool, concealed bags of heroin inside his body and caught the bus to Aberdeen before boarding the NorthLink ferry on 26th May. Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie told the court on Wednesday the police had intelligence about his activities and were waiting at the Holmsgarth terminal the next day for “yet another Liverpudlian to come off the boat with diamorphine concealed in their rectum”.
Garnett initially refused to co-operate despite an X-ray at the hospital showing he had four packages in his abdomen. A warrant had to be obtained to allow a laxative to be administered against his will. Mr MacKenzie said the four packages of heroin had contained 780 individual wraps of £20 bags worth a total of about £15,600. He told Sheriff Graeme Napier that, as he had heard umpteen times before, the drugs mule had been coerced into smuggling heroin into Shetland. One day in Liverpool he had been walking his dog along a canal when he got into an altercation with another dog-walker. Garnett administered “a severe beating” to the man, Mr MacKenzie said.
Unfortunately the man used his family connections high up in the organised crime world to exact retribution, causing Garnett to be before the court facing years in jail. His defence lawyer Tommy Allan pointed out that Garnett’s string of previous convictions had not involved drugs but he had been ordered to go to Shetland or have his legs broken. “He was quite clear that they were serious about this,” Mr Allan said. Since his first court appearance in Lerwick in May Mr Garnett, a window-cleaner and car-washer, had co-operated and always intended pleading guilty, Mr Allan told the court. The Sheriff was amazed Garnett could get work as a window-cleaner with such an “appalling” criminal record, which included stretches inside. He jailed him for 40 months, backdated to 31st May since when he has been on remand.

And the Ugly....