“A door was opened . . . to more activity, to more self-confidence.”

Mark is a big-time Florida State University football fan, and loves to travel to games. But on a trip to Colorado, Mark couldn’t walk up a hill to get to the stadium, and his friends got really worried. “That was my crisis point,” he says. “I knew I needed to do something.”

Mark had heard of the Duke Center for Metabolic and Weight Loss Surgery and attended a seminar to learn more. “I knew it wasn’t going to be a magic pill, but I knew it could potentially let me have a more active life.”

After surgery, Mark lost 135 pounds. He no longer wears a CPAP mask at night for sleep apnea, and has no more issues with borderline type 2 diabetes. He also fulfilled a lifelong dream of skydiving, an activity not available to those over 250 pounds.

“It’s always scary as you prepare to step out of the plane,” he says. “But when you do, a great weight leaves you.”