a senior scientist says it might be possible for people with both covid jabs to face fewer restrictions, and travel without quarantining. i think that, in a time in the future, i'm not sure when, but, in a time in the future, i can imagine a situation where we will have alternatives to isolation for people who have two doses of the vaccine. more than half—a—million people in brazil have now died from coronavirus. experts warn the outbreak could worsen. the bbc understands the post office has made payouts to 400 former sub—postmasters, but thousands are still waiting for compensation. now on bbc news: specialist doctors are calling for obesity to be classed as a chronic illness which needs comprehensive treatment for all those affected. jeremy cooke speaks to sarah, who lives with obesity and has battled through stigma, dieting and damage to her mental

health, about a condition which society needs to face. a warning, viewers may find some of the images of surgery in this film disturbing. people think you are unintelligent, that you are lazy, that you eat too much, that you have done this to yourself, that is a choice, and ijust want to scream and say, none of those things are right. sarah knows that being this big is hard and heartbreaking. her story is one small part of the growing obesity crisis. unfortunately in the uk, we have built up a population of people, two million of them, for whom preventive and simple medical treatments are not going to work. that is a lot of people, many of them biologically hard—wired to put on fat and living a constant struggle against their own genetics in this fast food culture. i feel if you are fat, the options around here, there are a row of 20 shops

and seven of them are takeaways, you're going to go for that option. what about dieting and exercise? truth is many have tried, most have failed. losing, gaining, losing, gaining. even sticking to a diet, the long—term effects will never be good. shall we take your coat off? sarah is a 39—year—old mum, professional, successful, confident. with a bmi or body mass index of more than 40, she is considered severely obese. those numbers have doubled in england over 16 years. i remember sobbing to my parents as a teenager saying, it is not fair, why is this happening to me? why can't ijust be thinner? a question with no easy answer, no relief for a young girl desperate to fit in. on a weekend, what would you do

as a teenager, you would go shopping with your friends — and i used to hate it because i would stand in the shop and watch my friends trying on lovely close and i would look at handbags. so began a life of yo—yo diets and stigma, enough to bring her down and enough to raise her up to lose eight and a half stone. she completed a triathlon. it still wasn't enough. i still didn't like me. i wanted more, i wanted to look like that instagram person. you have decided that if you become that person, that would be the best life ever. but i just felt like there was still something that i am not happy with. why am i not happy? as predictable as it is heartbreaking, the weight returned. living with obesity means living with obesity. there are no breaks. i used to go through a phase of weighing myself every day and i used to think, why am i doing this?

all i am doing is punishing myself every day by standing on the scales and seeing a number i don't like. meeting a friend for lunch shortly and i am thinking, what are the chairs going to be like? if i am perching on a chair thinking it might collapse underneath me, i won't feel very comfortable. it is a sunday morning and i am here with emily, and we are about to go for a swimming lesson. driving over here, my thinking is, how when i get into the swimming pool? this is all simple, right? limit yourfood, do more exercise. if it was that simple, maybe one in four of us in the uk would not be living with obesity. people who have inherited a gene set that means they are much more likely to develop obesity in this environment than other people. you put them in an environment where we have the kind of foods available today, and without the most incredible

willpower and support, they will put on weight. but a lot of people watching this will say, well, when i put a few pounds on holiday, if i go to the gym and go on a diet, it works for me, these people are greedy, what is the problem? the number of people i have encountered in my 30 year career who have been able to go from morbid obesity to normal weight by dieting alone, i don't think i have ever met one. it is so hard to do. the government launched an obesity strategy last year, including plans to limit the promotion of unhealthy food but maybe it is all about how we all think about obesity. when the illness is called obesity, unfortunately the public perception hasn't quite understood that it is an illness. strangely, perhaps, for sarah, that comes as a relief. how have you found lockdown? understanding that a problem is genetic, that her

condition is an illness. that it is not her fault. i have the fto gene and i am 50% more likely than to live with obesity than not. another gene that i have means i have a propensity to eat fatty foods. it is not because i do not have willpower, it is not because of my fault, it is because of my body, this is science, it is the way i am built. the science — it is increasingly clear that genetics hard—wired some of our bodies to actively work to store excess fat. we've got a kebab place, a fish shop. and then there is the food environment. her mate lives surrounded by sugar and fatty fast food on the doorstop. arguably addictive, potentially dangerous. and cheap. you look at poor economic areas like here, you don't put areas like this down, you lift them up.

we had to sign a petition last week for one of the shops here, this one literally next to takeaway here, to not be turned into another takeaway. if obesity is an illness, where is the treatment? times when i have gone to the doctor, i have been so desperate for help, saying, please, help me, they have been times when they have said that there is nothing we can do for you. in the areas of the uk where help is available, it comes as a four tier programme. it starts with leaflets and food advice. moves up through psychological help... and ends here, in the operating room. they call it bariatric surgery, the obesity treatment of last resort. push the fat out of the way. it radically reduces the size of the stomach and so limits food intake and suppresses hunger. the results are dramatic. it is a life—changing event.

for this gentleman, it will be life—saving. these people need to lose eight to ten stone, otherwise they will die of their obesity and its related illnesses. there is growing evidence that there is no healthy way to be obese, with links to cardiovascular disease and stroke. the latest bad news is that severe obesity means a 66% higher chance of chronic kidney disease. this gentleman, whose kidney disease is getting worse, the worse his general health is, the bigger his weight becomes. his issue will be he will now start to develop diabetes, which will make his kidney disease even worse, and the vicious cycle gets more and more entrenched. i am all for prevention of obesity but the reality is in the uk, there are two and a quarter million

people who are now so big that they need treatment, prevention, diet, they are just not going to work. ijust know that if i went through bariatric surgery and i regained weight, that is why i mentally don't think i could handle it. none of this is easy, but for some this is the last best hope of change. the government says obesity is among our biggest national challenges. at the queen alexander hospital in portsmouth, it is obesity clinic day. patients here can be complex cases. you'll see a dietician, specialist nurse, anaesthetist, myself. like sarah, india has been living with obesity for years. like her, too, she has found it punishing, physically and medically.

it has been tough. years of self—hatred. bullying. india has thought about it, run through the options, she is going for the op. what will it change? i feel it would change self—esteem, weight loss. i feel i will be happy and comfortable with myself. for sarah, the hope is that new drug therapies, appetite suppressants, will be available in the uk soon and finally give her what she wants the most. if you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? my size. without hesitation? yes, absolutely. because of my body shape and size, people do not value me the same. that is why i don't like myself, i don't want to be like that, i want to be like them. have you come to accept that you won't be? i think there is still an element of hope in me. the physical impact of obesity can be in very difficult but it is also tangled up with psychological issues, the complex link

between mental health and food. it can feel overwhelming. when i am looking in the mirror, i don't stand and look and stare because that, for me, would be breaking point. really? yeah. why? because i don't like what i see in the mirror. i never have. because you don't like it or society doesn't like it? probably primarily because society doesn't like it. after a lifetime of blame and stigma, for sarah, the focus now is on her daughter. i want her to just know that everyone comes in different shapes and sizes, we have different hair colour, different heights, and everyone is ok with that, people don't care, but they do when it is body shape. ijust want her to be her and i am passionate about getting that message across to her. and that is why sarah is starting a charity to change attitudes and to end prejudice. what i want is for more people to understand that i am

in the process of starting a new obesity charity because at the moment, there really isn't a lot of support all kind of drive out there to kind of change that obesity narrative. for those living with obesity, for the professionals, that change can't come soon. it is shameful, really, because with each passing year that we fail to really get on board with managing the obesity epidemic, it gets exponentially worse. i just think we will look back in 10—20 years time, at the way we have treated people with obesity and be utterly horrified.

hello, and welcome to sportsday, i'm chetan pathak. coming up on tonight's programme... wales are beaten by italy, but through to the last 16 of the european championship. max verstappen gets the better of lewis hamilton to win the french grand prix. and cameron norrie's beaten in the final at queen's as the top seed matteo berretini powers to victory. welcome along, thanks forjoining us. we start tonight in rome, where wales had a man sent off and were beaten 1—0 by italy

in theirfinal group game at euro 2020. their automatic qualification spot was under threat for a while with switzerland leading turkey in the other game in their group, but wales withstood the italian pressure to ensure they finish second and qualify for the last 16. adam wild reports. rome today providing perhaps the most fitting backdrop for the belief and passion of wales — to meet the beauty and the style in dutch oven italian side, so far impressive. they were assured of progression. wells were almost there... chris gunter as close as wales would get in the first half dominated by italy. they got their goal eventually just before italy. they got their goal eventuallyjust before half—time. manteo pristina, the faintest of touches, the fullest of celebrations. the lead at the break

almost doubled shortly after. a free kick against the post. italy now putting their foot down. wales responding in kind. a red card, perhaps unlucky, perhaps not. but at 1-0, perhaps unlucky, perhaps not. but at 1—0, you always have a chance. wales's fell to gareth bale — a big moment, a costly mists. three wins from three for italy, but wales or through too. the journey continues and now i get serious. adam wilde, bbc news. i and now i get serious. adam wilde, bbc news. ~ ., and now i get serious. adam wilde, bbc news. ~' ., , ., bbc news. i knew would be a difficult game, _ bbc news. i knew would be a difficult game, but _ bbc news. i knew would be a difficult game, butjust - bbc news. i knew would be a difficult game, butjust to - bbc news. i knew would be a l difficult game, butjust to spice things up, we thought we'd make it more difficult. the boys grafted hard, we worked our socks off. that's kind of our minimum requirement, another massive achievement. so to go prove everyone wrong again and get out of the group stages is a great achievement for us. 0bviously now we look forward to the next game, and we're going to

try to win it.