Doctors missed a 75-year-old's hernia for years - telling him he was just fat and needed to go on a diet, it has been claimed.

Brian Wright, a grandfather-of-five, said he has been on at least 10 different diets over the past six years on the advice of his local doctors in Forest Hill after his stomach started ballooning in size.

In an effort to beat the bulge, the retired floor layer stopped eating the Chinese takeaways and

McDonald's meals he used to enjoy, even having second thoughts about his favourite mashed potato at family meals.

But no matter how much he changed his eating habits, Mr Wright, of College Road, Bromley, said his belly kept on growing larger and larger.

So he was aghast when, after he started getting stomach acid reflux in his throat, he was sent to hospital last month and his expanding stomach was finally diagnosed as being due to a hernia.

Mr Wright told News Shopper: "For the past few years I've been putting on weight after weight. But every time I went to the doctors, they told me to go on a diet. I've been on all different ones.

"I don't take any sugar now because of this. I very seldom drink now, I used to like that. I've given up a lot of things I liked in actual fact. None of it made any difference. I still got big.

"I felt as though I was banging my head against a brick wall. Meanwhile, I've been getting a great big fat belly.

He went on: "It got so bad I've been getting acid in my throat when I sleep. I can't get no sleep of a night.

"Now they've found out there's nothing wrong with my diet. It's all because of a massive hernia.

"It feels like, all along, all those diets were just a waste of time."

Mr Wright said he has even had to change his shopping habits, visiting clothes shops for larger men in a bid to find something which will fit him.

He explained: "I need to visit the outsize shops. I don't fit anything else.

"I was never big at any point before. I used to be Mr Average in height and weight. You wouldn't notice me in the high street."

He now needs to wait until next month for an appointment at Lewisham Hospital which he hopes will finally resolve the issue.

Mr Wright's local surgery, The Vale Medical Centre in Forest Hill, refused to comment.