Brit Mum Demmi is sharing her story after losing a significant amount of weight
The 27-year-old claims the rare neurological condition causes her to be bedbound for days and suffer with vision loss due to a build-up of fluid pressure around the brain.(Image: Kennedy News & Media )
A mum has lost more than eight stone and doesn’t recognise herself in the mirror any more. Demmi Wilson’s weightloss has changed her life and made it far easier to do things with her kids.
But behind her dramatic turnaround lies a serious health battle. She was diagnosed with idiopathic intracranial hypertension [IIH] in September 2023 after suffering from a five-day headache earlier that year.
The 27 year old says the rare neurological condition left her bedbound for days and suffering with vision loss due to a build-up of fluid pressure around the brain. Initially, the mum of three thought her deteriorating eyesight was saved in October 2023 after undergoing surgery to have a stent fitted to help drain the fluid.
But when her vision continued to worsen post-surgery, she says she was told by medical professionals to prepare herself to go blind at just 26 and was devastated she’d ‘only hear’ her children grow up. When a doctor suggested drastic weight loss could potentially help save her vision, 19 stone 6lb Demmi decided to go under the knife in May 2025 and have a gastric bypass.
Demmi, who lost 8st 7lbs, is now a slim size 12 – down from a size 22 – and claims dropping the weight saved her sight as it eased the pressure around her optic nerve. The condition, also known as pseudotumor cerebri, is caused by a build-up of pressure around the brain that mimics tumour-like symptoms including a loss of vision, sickness and headaches.
Demmi before her transformation(Image: Kennedy News & Media )
Now, Demmi is sharing her story to raise awareness about IIH and urges anyone suffering with headaches to get checked out as it could be something ‘sinister’. Demmi, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, said: “Following my brain surgery I was still getting the headaches and I could be bedbound for four days a week.
“I had awful mum guilt because of this. I wanted to get out and do things with my children and I just couldn’t do it. I felt like I was failing and letting my children down as I couldn’t do normal family activities.
“I was told they wanted me to try a weight loss procedure. If I dropped a drastic amount of weight fast, they said it might reduce the pressure in my brain and take the stress off my optic nerve.
“They didn’t say my weight was a cause of my brain condition but said losing weight may help with my eyesight and stop me going blind. My eyesight was deteriorating – I ended up losing my vision in the corner of my left eye.
“This happened because nothing was working and helping my condition. I was getting to the point where I would have tried everything and I was sick of popping pills down my throat. At this point [February 2025], they told me they would prepare me for going blind as there was no control over my condition – this was extremely difficult to hear.
“Being told at 26 that I was at a serious threat of losing my vision was so hard. All I could think about was I was going to hear my children grow up but never see them.
“They threatened to take my driving licence from me and were going to give me a counsellor to help me process going blind. I had had so many procedures done and they didn’t help. I was in denial that the weightloss surgery would help.
“But this surgery has dramatically decreased the risk of me going blind. It’s been lifesaving and saved my vision.” Since undergoing weight loss surgery, Demmi says she still experiences headaches and has issues with her vision but there is a reduced risk of going blind now.
Things are better since the weight loss – ‘it’s amazing’
Demmi said: “I still have bad days but the pain isn’t as bad and they’re not as bad as they used to be. From a medical point of view, my swelling markers are really starting to stabilise so this is really reducing the risk of me going blind.
“Since having it [weight loss surgery] done, my eyesight has not got any worse and it has stopped deteriorating. It feels amazing that this has helped me to stop going blind and I’ll hopefully be able to see my kids grow up.”
While Demmi had the gastric bypass for medical reasons, she says she feels more confident in her body since shedding the pounds. She is now speaking out about how debilitating IIH can be and hopes to set up a support group in the future for others to share their challenges.
Demmi said: “When I look back on pictures, I can’t believe that was me and I don’t recognise myself in the mirror at all. I look a lot healthier now and I have more shape to me now than I did. At the start I just thought it was a normal headache.
“You might think it is a normal headache but you need to get things checked if the headache is not going away because there could be more sinister things to it. Even if this helps one person to realise they are not alone with this condition, that would be enough.
“It’s mentally draining and I was sick of taking medication and going to hospitals. I just wanted to be a normal person and now I’m starting to get those normal parts of my life back which I didn’t have for nearly two years.”
What is idiopathic intracranial hypertension?
According to the NHS, intracranial hypertension is a build-up of pressure around the brain. The NHS website says “it can happen suddenly, for example, as the result of a severe head injury, stroke or ruptured brain aneurysm.
“It can be caused by a condition that affects your brain, such as a brain abscess, brain tumour, meningitis or encephalitis. IH can also develop as a complication of another condition such as high blood pressure.
Treatment for these types of IH depends on the cause. Sometimes though there is no obvious reason why pressure builds up around the brain. Build-up of pressure with no known cause is known as idiopathic intracranial hypertension.”
