’Cause I know… no matter how big I get, how disgusting I am, she loves me. And I think there’s a lot of people who don’t have someone who loves ’em. And I feel really sad when I think of that.

JOJO: Like we saw on the telly right, when we were watching… Arty, y’know, with Batty-bra?

ARTY: She means David Attenborough.

JOJO: There were foxes wanting a tasty gosling but the geese mums weren’t having it. They went absolutely mental with the flapping and the pecking and honest-to-God these foxes with their sharp teeth ran straight the other way ’cause a mother’s love is not to be trifled with. And that’s the same with me and my Moon. Oh, that’s what I call him, don’t I, love? ’Cause when he smiles it’s like a great big light gone on in the dark. So I’d dare them foxes to have a go ’cause it won’t be pretty when I’m finished. Blood on the floor, there’d be. Blood on the floor.

DOCUMENTARY VOICE-OVER: But the burden of living life as a 400-kilo man is starting to take its toll on Arthur’s health.

ARTY: When I had the second heart attack when I was like… 17 yeah, and the second heart attack, just a couple months after the first I thought… yeah, this is me done.

JOJO: It was like the light was disappearing and everything turning grey. And I said, ‘I can’t lose him. I won’t’. That’s what I said to the doctor, I said, ‘I don’t care what you do but you bring my Moon back safe to me’.

ARTY: And that’s why, y’know, I need the gastric bypass. They said if I don’t lose weight I’m gonna die so…

He stares off into space.

I never think about the future. What I’m gonna be when I grow up. I think I’ve grown up. I think this is it. And there’s no point having dreams.

JOJO: And that’s when I contacted ‘Shocking Fat Stories’. ’Cause we need help. ’Cause I can’t lose my boy.

259 DAYS BEFORE SURGERY

DOCUMENTARY VOICE-OVER: To prepare for his new life post-surgery, Arthur is receiving assistance from Centrelink Pathways to work officer, Louise Jelenic.

LOUISE: Disability is a state of mind. The best form of welfare is work. It doesn’t matter if you’re missing a leg or have no fingers—

PRODUCER: Cut to

Young man with Down’s syndrome, smiling for the camera, pushing trolleys at Woolworths