Fergie goes to Burnley on a weight-loss mission
Sarah Ferguson has visited Burnley in a bid to tackle the town's obesity problems. 75 per cent of Burnley's residents are overweight or obese, making the town the 10th fattest place in the UK.The Duchess of York spent a day at a school, mosque and Turf Moor football stadium meeting local leaders and forging links with medical professionals.Speaking to Independent TV she said that battled an eating disorder "from the age of 12 through to 35".Click here to read the full feature by Guy Walters on Independent Premium.
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00:00 You're all cool, you're all cool, and everybody's cool, but redheads are cool.
00:05 Question, what did Fergie say to trigger giggles?
00:09 Answer, "Ew, what's that down your front?" I went, "It's horse slobber."
00:13 Hang on a minute, isn't that Fergie? She appears to be in a school.
00:22 And what have we got here? She's now in a mosque? She's now in a football stadium.
00:27 In fact, she appears to be all over this place.
00:30 And she's even feeding me my lunch.
00:33 Howdy girl, Duchess.
00:35 Fergie is, of course, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York,
00:39 and still technically, you know, part of the royal family, sort of,
00:43 but, you know, it's all a bit complicated.
00:46 But she's also very much her own woman, and she has come to Burnley.
00:51 Yep, you heard that right, Burnley, in a bid to help the town with its obesity issues.
00:57 So here she is at a school.
01:00 I came to Burnley because I've decided that Burnley is the cool place to be.
01:06 Who, hands up, who agrees with that?
01:09 I lost my mother at 11. She didn't die in the car crash until later,
01:13 but she left to live in Argentina.
01:16 I didn't want to tell Mum I was unhappy, because I thought it would hurt her.
01:19 So I obviously ate my feelings, and that's when I became a compulsive eater,
01:24 and food was my best friend.
01:26 It caused me to write my latest young adult book about mental health around food eating disorders.
01:32 Not to put too fine a point on it, Burnley has a bit of a weight problem.
01:37 75% of its residents are classified as either being overweight or obese.
01:44 Burnley is in fact the 10th fattest place in the UK.
01:49 Now Fergie has made it her mission, her mission, to help the town with its issues,
01:54 and what she's going to do is draw on her own experiences.
01:58 I had an eating disorder from the age of 12 through to probably joining Weight Watchers when I was 35.
02:06 Recently Fergie has been working with Dr James Fleming.
02:09 Now he's a local GP, and he's the founder of the Green Dreams Project.
02:14 That tackles social problems, and frankly it's a really big job.
02:18 Using their Fresh Food initiative, Dr Fleming and his team are aiming to steer people away from junk food.
02:25 Now that is a big ask.
02:27 This is the beginning of my big work of supporting Dr James Fleming and his work, and what he wants to achieve.
02:34 And that key message begins in schools.
02:39 But still there's this really big overriding question. Why Burnley?
02:44 Well, Fergie's relationship with the town actually begins during the COVID-19 pandemic,
02:51 when she had seen this BBC video which had gone viral on social media,
02:55 which showed just how hard up the residents of Burnley were.
03:00 And so what did she do? She reached out.
03:03 I went and rented a trailer, and I went out and I bought sleeping bags, I put blankets, I put presents,
03:10 I put anything that I would want if I was freezing cold on a winter night.
03:15 And since then, fair play to her, she's actually kept up her involvement, her relationship with the town.
03:21 So, fair enough.
03:23 Actually, to be frank, rather rudely, I think I invited myself back.
03:27 However rude she may feel it is, Fergie's presence in Burnley seems actually pretty well received by everyone she meets.
03:34 And she is undeniably having an impact on the town and its people.
03:40 And then say, we are very happy!
03:44 We are very happy!
03:46 [Music]
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