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A girl taken away from her parents because they couldn’t control her eating has become one of the youngest victims of Britain’s obesity crisis by dying at the age of 20.

Samantha Packham weighed 40 stone when her heart stopped as she was being lifted in a hospital hoist in front of her horrified mum.

Despite three years in social services care, Samantha had failed to lose any weight – with one foster family even feeding her takeaway kebabs.

Parents Malcolm and Jan, who admit they badly failed their daughter, have agreed to highlight her tragic death in the Sunday People as a warning to other families who let their kids guzzle endlessly.

Jan, 49, who with Malcolm has had Samantha’s birth date tattooed on an arm, said: “She was in a special hoist so she could be moved from her bed to the commode.

(Image: Ian Tuttle)

“I was right next to her ­reassuring her because she was scared of heights.

“She looked at me and said: ‘I love you Mum’ and then all of a sudden she turned ­completely white.

“A nurse pressed the panic button and they pushed me out the room. It was horrendous.

“They brought her back once, but then her heart stopped again and that was it.

“Malcolm and I went to see her. I kept prodding her, telling her to wake up. I couldn’t take it all in. She was only 20. How could she be gone?”

Malcolm, 44, said: “We take ­responsibility – we hold our hands up and admit we messed up.

“We should have set her ­boundaries with food, but we didn’t and now we’ve paid the worst price. We know Sammy would still be here if she had been healthier. But it’s not easy trying to stop someone from eating if they don’t want to.”

(Image: Ian Tuttle)

Samantha, who dreamed of going to college and studying to become a hairdresser, is believed to be the first child taken into care for obesity in Britain to have died.

There is now likely to be an ­investigation to see if the authorities could have done more.

The UK has the highest level of obesity in Western Europe and a fifth of all our children are now overweight or obese before primary school.

In the last five years, 74 morbidly-obese children like Samantha have been removed from their families by social services. But she is the first to have died.

(Image: Ian Tuttle)

Samantha was just eight when Malcolm and Jan ­realised she had a problem. Malcolm, 44, said: “She would eat her dinner and then she would just go to the fridge and help ­herself to more food.

“We tried to tell her she’d just had her ­dinner and didn’t need anything else, but she would fly into a rage.

“She would swear and once she even pulled the hinges off the doors – she was that strong at the age of eight. We took her to the doctors but they did absolutely nothing.”

When Samantha was 14, social services at Brighton and Hove Council got involved after a family friend reported concerns.

Malcolm said: “They told us they had received a report of neglect. We couldn’t believe it. We know we made some mistakes, but we’d always tried our best and we loved Sammy to pieces.

“At first they gave us advice on a healthy eating regime for Sammy.

“But it was impossible stopping her from going out and buying food in secret.

(Image: Ian Tuttle)

“It was like an eating disorder. She loved food. We tried our best, but there’s only so much you can do. If someone wants to eat, they will always find a way. She would buy crisps and chocolate bars on her way home from school and eat them in secret. Maybe we should have stopped her pocket money, but that didn’t feel like the right thing.”

Malcolm and Jan were told that social services were seeking a court order to remove Samantha from their care.

Malcolm said: “It was absolutely awful. We had a solicitor to fight for us but we lost.

“I will never forget the day they came to collect her. We were all crying and Samantha was ­screaming, begging them not to take her away. All the neighbours came out. It was horrendous.”

Although Malcolm and Jan admit they made mistakes, they feel their daughter was let down by social services. Jan said: “They took Sammy away from us, but then they didn’t give her any help.

“They put her with a family who went out all the time and left her with takeaway menus.

“She was phoning me up ­saying: ‘Guess what? I’m having an extra large kebab!’ She hated being in care. She kept running away all the time.’’

(Image: Ian Tuttle)

Malcolm said: “Initially we were allowed to meet her once a week at a contact centre, then eventually we were allowed to have her stay with us at weekends.

“Then one weekend we had a call to say that she didn’t need to go back to her foster family. It was such a happy moment.”

Samantha, who had learning difficulties and went to a special needs school, resolved to kick her junk food habit earlier this year when she was offered a gastric band operation.

Jan said: “Instead of crisps and chocolate she’d started eating fruit and other healthy foods.

“She was trying really hard and was excited about getting the gastric band. She was only 20, she had all these plans. But now she’s gone.”

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “We are committed to keeping families together wherever it is safe to do so.

“Decisions regarding children being taken into care are made by judges, not councils.

“Judges only make care orders when they ­believe a child is at risk of serious neglect or physical harm if the child stays with its parents.”

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