HUNGER FOR FAT CAMP

Worried parents are queuing up to pay almost £6,000 to send their obese offspring to the Lake District camp, run by US firm Wellspring.

Its bosses say demand has been boosted by the report earlier this year that one in four British children is overweight and by the TV series I Know What You Ate Last Summer, about a fat camp.

This is only the second summer the camp has been in business but already 50 children have been booked in for the eight-week course and Well­spring bosses say their phones are “ringing off the hook” with inquiries from other parents.

But Dr Alan Corrin, who runs an obesity clinic in Chester, warned: “Kids may well lose weight at these boot camps, but afterwards they will undoubtedly put it straight back on again.

“In many cases their condition, both physically and mentally, will be even worse.”