Man fundraising for surgery to remove watermelon-sized mass

By Amy Reast

A man with a watermelon-sized hernia is fundraising £4,500 ($6,110) to get removal surgery in Lithuania — as the NHS won't operate due to his weight.

John Burden, 61, woke up one day in October 2022 with a golf ball-sized lump in the center of his stomach.

He went to his GP, who called an ambulance and had fluid drained from his stomach in hospital.

But the lump never went away — and it continued to grow.

Over the years, John said he has visited consultants and had countless scans and blood tests — but each time was told nothing could be done until he lost weight, he claims.

He did lose nearly 20kg but said nobody has been willing to operate on him.

Over the past four months, the hernia began having ruptures — leaving blood spouting out of the mass and requiring emergency room trips and even a blood transfusion.

But each time he said he has simply been told he needs to lose more weight, as a surgery would be useless when the mass "might come back."

The mass has now grown to the size of a watermelon and he needs to wear XXXXL shirts to fit over the lump.

He is no longer able to drive or work because the lump gets in the way — and now accesses Universal Credit (UC) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) from the government to live.

John feels his only option is to save up £4,500 (more than $6,000) to afford to fly to Lithuania where a specialist hernia surgeon is willing to operate, he says.

John, a shop fitter, from Weymouth, Dorset, said: "When I first found the 'bubble', it was as big as a golf ball — I was told to lose weight and stop drinking.

"But every time I lost weight and went back, I was just told to lose more weight.

"I feel like they just don't want to operate now.

"It causes me pain at night, I can't drive any more, and I haven't been able to work in three years.

"And the state is paying me a lot of money while I'm not working — when all I'd like to do is have the hernia removed so I can start working again.

"I'm just fed up of it all now."

John first noticed the lump — later diagnosed as a hernia — around three and a half years ago, shortly after recovering from a bout of pneumonia.

After being blue-lighted to Dorset County Hospital and having fluid drained, doctors told him to return for further treatment once he had lost some weight, he claims.

But he claims each time he returned, having lost weight, he was sent away to lose more.

He was referred for several scans of the hernia over the years, but he said he was told that internally, the scans showed he was healthy and the hernia wasn't a threat to him.

He has dropped around 20kg, getting down to 114kg, since he was first told to lose weight.

He said: "It has started to feel like they just don't want to operate on me."

In 2023, he became unable to work because of the mass on his stomach, and began claiming benefits instead.

In late 2025, the hernia, which has now ballooned in size, began having small ruptures which bled so aggressively that John has been in and out of the emergency room.

He said: "I was projecting blood 10 feet across the floor, like a rainbow across the house.

"The first time, I called the ambulance and they couldn't stop the bleeding. I had to have a blood transfusion."

But he claims despite the worsening situation, consultants don't want to operate.

He said in January, he was sent for a liver scan at a different hospital, but when that came back normal, he didn't get any further updates.

Anticipating more rejections, John got in touch with the European Hernia Society (EHS) in Lithuania last year, who have said they would operate on it for him.

But this comes at a cost of £4,500 (more than $6,000) including travel and accommodation, so John is now fundraising for the life-changing surgery.

He said: "I used to love going swimming in summer, but I can't take my top off any more.

"It gets me down all the time, but I have to keep trying.

"One way or another I will get it sorted."

A spokesperson for Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "We're not able to talk about individual cases due to patient confidentiality, but we would encourage Burden to get in touch with our patient experience team so they can look into this on his behalf."