Mum abandons family 'because she can't cope with stress of caring for overweight children'

Nicolae Marginean says his children are now putting on even more weight because he can't afford to feed them healthy food

A distraught father has accused the mother of his three children of walking out on them because she couldn't deal with the stress of them being overweight.

Nicolae Marginean, 45, says the mother of his children - whose name is unknown - left while their children, Madalina, eight, Denisa, seven, and four-year-old Andrei, were in the middle of treatment to help them lose weight.

The children weigh 13st 2lbs, 6st 6lbs and 7st 1lb, respectively.


Nicolae claims he was forced to take sole responsibility for the youngsters when their mother left after offering to take the only one of them for whom they receive a monthly allowance of £7.

And with her gone, he says he can't afford to buy the healthy food they need to keep their weight down - meaning they are now likely to continue piling on the pounds.

The family live in the town of Botosani, in north-eastern Romania.

Nicolae said that normally their mother would take care of the children but he had kept them because she had only wanted to take the child that was getting £7 a month.

He said: "I didn't want my children to be separated, so when she refused the others I kept all of them.

"She said she couldn't cope with the stress of three overweight children and their special needs and wanted to have her life back."

He continued: "Doctors told us my children would have serious problems if they did not lose weight, and gave us a diet of things to avoid.

"But the things we can't eat are the only things we can afford, so we have had to go back to eating unhealthy foods.

"In addition, my children miss their mother and so they are putting on even more weight."

The children spend most of their time at home as it is a struggle for them to get to school, where they are teased and bullied when they do turn up.

Denisa said: "My classmates laugh at me. They say I’m fat and poor and nobody wants anything to do with me."

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By Dominic Smith