When Nelson’s Kylie Davies flew to Mexico for weight loss surgery, she returned home with far more than a stamp in her passport. A year later – and 130kgs lighter – she’s sharing her story, supporting others on the same path, and gearing up to conquer a half marathon.
Words: Alistair Hughes
With the popularity of Mexican cuisine soaring in recent years, returning from a trip to that country carrying more extra weight than just your duty-free is a distinct possibility.
But since project support manager Kylie Davies visited Mexico in 2023, she has lost an astounding 130kgs. And this isn’t due to ill health – but exactly the opposite, as the purpose of Kylie and her husband Mike’s visit was the growing phenomenon of medical tourism. With a group of 18 others from New Zealand, they underwent surgical weight-loss procedures carried out by highly-trained specialists in a Tijuana hospital, and then enjoyed a holiday tour before returning home.
Kylie is not only completely relaxed about discussing this most personal of journeys, but she’s also well practised at putting anyone with questions at ease.
“Do you want to know what led to this change?” she prompts, gently dispelling any awkwardness before beginning her remarkable story.
“I think, after Covid, when everybody had been in their little bubbles, I got to a place in my life where I had put on so much weight and felt the worst I've ever been, physically (225kg), emotionally and mentally as well. I’d reached the point where I needed to make a drastic change.”
Kylie’s situation had been exacerbated by the fact that she suffers from a hormonal condition called polycystic ovary syndrome, which also contributes to weight gain.
“I was bordering on sleep apnea, and close to becoming pre-diabetic. Physically, I wasn't getting around, and didn't want to go out; I had stopped living, essentially. I've always been a bubbly person, energetic and I love people. But I was in the worst state I had been in my entire life.”
She visited her doctor for help with a public funding application for weight-loss surgery, which was then passed to a council for a decision. But with only a very small percentage per region able to access this kind of assistance, Kylie was unsuccessful. She then began to look at private funding.
“Because my husband wanted the procedure as well, it was going to cost us over $60,000, and we just couldn't financially justify it. So we researched a little bit more, and looked at medical tourism.”
Mexico might not have been foremost in many people’s minds as the most likely destination, but Kylie happened to know Kirsten Leonard, who has run the medical tourism company Trim Up since 2012, and was quickly reassured when she saw a television documentary about her business.
“So I reached out to Kirsten to ask about her packages, and the whole thing was less than half the New Zealand price for my husband and I to go to Mexico, have a holiday, the surgery and pre- and post-operative care. It just blew my mind, and really seemed too good to be true, to be honest.”
Accessing their KiwiSaver to pay for the package, Kylie and Mike joined the group flight to Los Angeles and were then driven across the Mexican border to Tijuana.
“One of my biggest concerns was how I would feel afterwards. I had only one surgery before, for a hernia, and I remembered how sore it was. So I was thinking this was going to be terrible and didn’t know how I would cope with the 13-hour flight back to Auckland.”
Kylie’s procedure was a gastric sleeve, surgically reducing the size of her stomach.
“I had genuinely felt really scared about the post-op sort of side of things, but it was not anything that I should have been worried about at all. Although they removed 80 to 85% of my stomach during keyhole surgery, I was very surprised with how good I felt afterwards. Actually, I felt amazing and my husband was exactly the same.”
With the other tour members displaying similar recuperative superpowers (with some extra time required for those who opted for a gastric bypass), a couple of days later the group was ready for the holiday to begin.
“So we went out for a tour in Mexico, spending a couple of days in Tijuana,” recounts Kylie. “And then back to LA to continue the holiday. It was an amazing experience and, if anything, I felt a little bit tired, but that was to be expected.”
Safely back home in New Zealand, Kylie explains that the weight-loss process actually began prior to surgery.
“I had to go on a pre-op diet for four weeks. So I actually lost 17kgs during that time, the goal being to shrink your liver so you can get into the best shape possible for surgery.”
The diet consisted of a high-protein, low-carbohydrate regime including shakes, which she admits some people struggle with.
“Then, in surgery, when they remove that part of your stomach, they also remove a hormone called ghrelin. The result is that you just don't feel hungry, which is a really bizarre feeling to me because I never thought I ever would. I used to love food, and I still do, in smaller portions. And so I started losing weight routinely.”
Kylie says that progress was steady, although everyone experiences ‘stalls’, periods when there may not be any weight loss for two to three weeks.
“Overall, it does happen quite quickly. I've lost 130kgs since I had my surgery in November 2023, and I still haven’t plateaued to where my body is happy yet.”
She has experienced ‘quirks’ along the way which in retrospect are amusing, if less so at the time.
“Your body is changing quite dramatically and quite quickly. I'd find a pair of jeans that I really liked, but they’d only fit me for about two weeks, which was frustrating. But you stop to remind yourself this is the most ridiculous thing to be upset about.”
Kylie sustained herself through the more emotional side of her journey by focusing on looking back and comparing photographs of herself to confirm how far she had come. And now, she certainly feels her body is happy enough to attempt a half marathon in Queenstown at the end of the year.
“I've actually done four half marathons before, including the very first Queenstown event. I was a lot bigger then, and I walked the course. But it was a real struggle, which took me almost four and a half – five hours.”
This time around, Kylie decided that she needed a goal to focus on and maintain her fitness.
“I'm really excited to be training and working towards this half marathon in November. A group of my girlfriends are coming down to do it with me, but I just wanted to go to Queenstown anyway!”
Overcoming a recent injury, she has just begun her training regime.
“I've just had to work with my physio on my knees, to make sure that they’re absolutely fine. I'm also working with a personal trainer who I love, and my goal is to get out every day. So generally, every lunchtime I'm out walking, while at night time I'll try to jog or run until my fitness is where I need it to be.”
She says that it always feels like a good idea when she’s signing up for the event, “but ask me how I feel when I’m 18 or 19 kms in!”
In the meantime, Kylie has drawn upon her own medical tourism experience to advise and support others who are considering the same option. Initially, she was reticent to share her experience but found it to be so positive and beneficial that she made the decision to ‘put herself out there’ on social media.
“I was inspired to start a Tiktok channel and documented my whole journey. From there, I ended up getting a heap of followers and people reaching out to me, and now I'm receiving over a hundred messages a day from people who have been purely positive and amazing. Many want to know how they can do this too, others are wanting help as well, and I can understand the position that they've been in and the feelings they have, because I've been there.”
Kylie is now director of her own company, Shape Up NZ, which works closely with Trim Up and another organisation called Reshape NZ to offer medical tourism options to Mexico, Turkey and Thailand.
“I support journeys for people regardless of where they are, or whether they’re wanting surgery in New Zealand or overseas. My goal is to make it attainable, essentially, for anybody.”
In the meantime, Kylie has begun something cosier and closer to home.
“I've also started a Nelson bariatric coffee catch-up group,” she laughs. “It's just a place where we can meet with other like-minded people in the area. And so we can share, do clothing swaps, and talk about the quirky little things we experience along the way. All that helps, even now I'm still learning.”
