While many stories in “My 600-lb Life” end in a bittersweet tone, the story of Charity Pierce fills us with the possibility that there’s always hope for morbidly obese people. When Charity debuted in the show in 2015, she was the heaviest female patient to ever be featured in it until then, but that wasn’t positive in the slightest.
As seen in the show, Charity’s life was far from easy, as not only did her weight stop her from moving around and taking care of herself, but she was also suffering from Lymphedema, a condition which caused swelling of several parts of her body.
Meet Charity Pierce – the world’s fattest woman. She weighs in at over 54 STONE: http://t.co/ID7JSpnb8l pic.twitter.com/DD4xUWZ0iY
— The Sun (@TheSun) April 26, 2014
Despite the disheartening situation that Charity was going through, the constant fear for her life persuaded het to overcome these difficulties with willpower and the support of her daughter.
So how is Charity doing nowadays and how much has she changed since her weight loss journey started? Keep watching to find out!
Charity’s Journey
As usually apparent with patients in “My 600-lb Life”, Charity Pierce’s life story was heartbreaking. Her childhood was difficult due to the emotional and physical violence that her alcoholic father inflicted on Charity and the rest of the family.
As she confessed in the show, it was usual for her to hide out of panic, every time her father arrived home from his job, as he was used to hitting the children and destroying their property. Having no other emotional tools to deal with her difficult family situation, the young Charity learned to ease her anxiety by consuming large amounts of food.
Fast forward to her debut in the third season of “My 600-lb Life”, when Charity’s life was at risk. Her eating habits spiraled out of control throughout the years, leading her to weigh over 778lbs at 39 years of age. Despite not being bedridden yet, Charity’s mobility was severely restricted at that point, leaving her no option but to seek the help of her daughter Charly and fiancé Tony to perform basic tasks such as going to the bathroom and taking care of her body hygiene.
The Struggle
As seen in the show, Charity Pierce was dealing with several weight-related issues which only made her life all the more difficult. Her Lymphedema condition caused severe swelling on the left side of her body, making it especially complex for her to move around and clean those areas of her body.
As if that wasn’t enough, Charity’s skin folds were filled with rashes which didn’t seem to heal, partly due to the Lymphedema. These areas were at high risk of infections, thus leading charity to affirm that her body was ‘falling apart’.
Before entering the show, Charity’s case became known in her native Iowa, due to its severity. As reported by the local channel KCRG, Charity was collecting funds to pay for an ambulance to go see Dr. Now in Houston, as she was intent on recovering her health, but was unable to afford the traveling costs on her own.
It’s unclear whether Charity managed to collect enough money through that campaign, but she eventually made it to Houston, where Dr. Now worryingly affirmed that she was in a very tough, serious situation.
The Aftermath
While Charity’s health situation was far from simple, she started losing weight right after entering Dr. Now’s weight loss program. Though her progress was slow it was constant, eventually resulting in her having much-needed bariatric surgery, despite Dr. Now’s worries that the risks were too high due to her weight.
It took Charity some time to get where she wanted weight-wise, but she slowly progressed. The help of Charly and Tony was key at this point, as not only were they her carers, but also did their best to adjust themselves to her new diet.
Nevertheless, the road wasn’t so easy for Charity, as she experienced a strong setback when her mother died from cancer. Back then, she expressed her regret at not being able to visit her mother during her last days, as she was still in treatment and hadn’t recovered enough mobility to travel.
At the end of her episode, Charity had lost almost 300lbs in weight, but her journey was far from over.
Life After The Show
Much to the joy of “My 600-lb Life” fans, several updates about Charity Pierce were shown in episodes of the spin-off “Where Are They Now?”.
One of these episodes from 2016 showed Charity with a drastically slimmer figure compared to her initial appearance. At that point, she was trying to get under 300lbs to have skin-removal surgery on her legs, though it was noticeable that she’d probably undergone a similar procedure before, to remove the butterfly-shaped bags of fat which shocked audiences on her debut.
On top of that, it was revealed in this episode that Charity’s daughter Charly would get into Dr. Now’s program to lose weight, as she had worryingly adopted her mother’s eating habits.
While this update about Charity’s life should have been satisfying, she later took to Facebook to speak up against the wave of speculative comments she was receiving over the episode. As Charity affirmed, the show was edited to not only make it seem that she wasn’t exercising, but also to construct harmful misinterpretations about her family’s inner dynamics. However, that didn’t mean the end of her relationship with the show.
Charity’s Life Now
The several pics shared by Charity Pierce on her social media, and the updates given in the show about her situation made it evident that her weight loss journey was a total success.
Nevertheless, Charity has faced other health challenges in recent years. As she revealed in a Facebook post from mid-2020, she was diagnosed with kidney cancer in late 2019, leaving doctors no option but to remove the affected kidney to prevent the disease from spreading.
According to Charity, this new diagnosis had taken a toll on her mental health, not only for its severity but also because her mother had died from kidney cancer years before. Later on, her daughter Charly posted a short update about her mother’s health, affirming that Charity had been doing better health-wise. On her part, a noticeably slimmer Charly also announced that she was currently working as a nursing assistant, accomplishing one of the dreams she was set on during her earliest appearances in the show.
In 2023, Charity went back to social media but didn’t give many details about her current situation. Nevertheless, it’s relieving to see that she’s doing well after dealing with so many difficulties, while persevering with her weight loss program.
