Two years later and 100 pounds less heavy Geoff is embracing long distance cycling and is now being weaned off all his diabetes medication as well as his blood pressure pills. Geoff brags that his sons saved his life – and it’s not hyperbole.
“Dad had always been the ‘big man’,” Anthony Whitington, 39 described his father. “As kids, we thought it was funny. Dad could drink more than anyone, he could eat more than anyone. It was his identity. That’s our dad and that’s what he does.”
But, a decade ago, when his father, Geoff, was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic at the age of 50, Anthony and his brother Ian were hardly shocked given their father’s appetite for food and drink. So, for 10 years, they watched their father dealing with the disease.
“As we got older, of course, we worried,” added Ian, 37, noting how his father was reluctant to change his lifestyle.
Anthony said that because he was a busy financial adviser with four kids of his own and cameraman was busy with jobs all over the world, noting that he and his brother were resigned to the fact that their father was a funny fat guy who drank too much.”
By 2013 Geoff weighed 280 pounds and diabetes was taking its toll on his overall health. He was plagued by high blood pressure, an abnormal heart beat, a swollen prostate, poor circulation, foot ulcers and bone deformities.
During a trip to the zoo with Anthony and his family, when the bones in Geoff’s foot collapsed. I remember him grabbing a railing, the blood in his sock, getting him back to the car, Anthony said. “Suddenly, this thing that the doctor was managing was very clearly something that wasn’t being managed.” Anthony worried that Geoff would have to have the limb removed, Anthony lamented. “The average lifespan after amputation for a diabetic is two years. We were losing him.”
Later at Ian’s wedding, the groom remembered his father remaining at the party longer than everyone else – he was always the last one in the room, sitting by himself nursing a bottle of brandy. “I remember looking at him and it was just horrendous. He was crumpled. He couldn’t get up and dance because of his feet, but he was quite emotional. He said something along the lines of: ‘I’ve done my job. You’re my greatest achievement.’ It was as if that was it. He didn’t need to exist anymore.”
It was at this point that the brothers intervened, with plan to overhaul, their father’s life that included multiple health consultations, family holidays together biking and an improved diet Two years later and 100 pounds less heavy Geoff is embracing long distance cycling and is now being weaned off all his diabetes medication as well as his blood pressure pills. Geoff brags that his sons saved his life – and it’s not hyperbole.
Professional cameraman, Ian filmed the family journey, and their documentary, Fixing Dad, was aired on the BBC2 last summer. Initially when the brothers first dug out Geoff’s bike and motivated him back start riding again– at first with Anthony would run along beside him pushing him up the hills. “After just three weeks, he was at his foot clinic and they said, ‘My God, we’re not having to scrape the ulcers as much. The blood flow is there – what have you been doing?’,” Anthony beamed. “That gave Dad hope. It kept him going.”
