QUINTON — A lot of little girls of a certain age have fond memories of their Chatty Cathy dolls.

But not Diane Basden.

“When I was first aware that I was a fat child was at the age of 9 years old,” she said. “There was a doll called Chatty Cathy and my mama bought me one because my first name is Cathy, too.

“I was playing with my doll one day and one of my uncles came in and said ‘Well, Fatty Cathy, you’re playing with Chatty Cathy.’

“From that day forward I hated the name Cathy and that’s why I wanted everybody to call me Diane.

“I feel like the word ‘fat’ is the most cruel word in Webster’s Dictionary.

“I went from being a fat child to being an obese adult. I have had to battle mental illness, poverty, being a single parent, and physical illness, but the biggest battle I’ve had to face is being overweight.”

By the time she was in the fifth grade — one year after a cute boy in her class gave her a Valentine’s Day card with a hippopotamus on it — Basden weighed 100 pounds. “I outweighed all the boys. The kids laughed at me,” she said.

By the seventh grade she was memorizing books of jokes so the other kids would like her for her sense of humor. But in the ninth grade, another boy in her class dealt the young girl a crushing blow.

“This cute boy from California sat right beside me, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. One day he looked at me and said ‘What are you looking at, you fat pig?’”

In high school, Basden discovered the drama department and the school’s newspaper, both things she was talented in and “they helped with my self-esteem a lot.”

But before she could graduate and leave the mean remarks behind, school had one more trick up its sleeve.

“In my senior year, Hunt’s department store had a fashion show at our school. They brought clothes down for the girls in the senior class to model. I didn’t get to model any of the clothes, though, because I was too big to wear them.”

That’s when Basden discovered diet pills. “I began to lose the weight,” she said. “I got down to 125 pounds and had an hourglass figure.

“But I believe those diet pills are what ruined my health.”

For 15 years, stopping only while pregnant with her two children, Basden took diet pills.

“I realize what they are now. They are amphetamines,” she said, adding that she believes a diagnosis of a chemical imbalance in her brain stemmed from taking diet pills.

In 1990, Dr. Mark Curry diagnosed her with diabetes, most likely brought on, he said, by Basden’s weight. “Diabetes was beginning to take a toll on me and in 1998 I started having to use a walker because of diabetic neuropathy in my feet and legs.

“Then my eyesight began to get bad. I weighed 300 pounds and didn’t try to control my appetite. This is what I would eat for breakfast: three sausages, three bacons, two scrambled eggs, a bowl of oatmeal, two biscuits and gravy and then milk and orange juice.

“I ate this every day until I got really sick on March 30, 2006.”

Basden was rushed to the hospital and Dr. Curry told her she’d die in six months if she didn’t lose a large amount of weight. “I was taking four shots and 20 pills a day,” she said. “I had gotten up to 400 pounds by this time.”

The doctor spoke with the administrator of the Quinton Manor nursing home, Levita Bacorn, and Basden’s diet was changed radically.

“Now I only eat a scrambled egg and a cup of sugar-free hot chocolate for breakfast,” she said. “By January of 2007 — starting from March 30, 2006 — I lost 125 pounds.

“Then on Aug. 8 I had to go back to the hospital. My feet were so swollen and purple you couldn’t see my toes. I lost 50 pounds of fluid and went from 260 pounds down to 210.

“I’ve now lost a total of 190 pounds. And even though I’m legally blind and confined to a wheelchair, I’m happy with my life.

“I just hope that what I say, my story, can inspire somebody and give them hope to lose weight. The struggle with weight problems is both mental and physical.

“On March 30, the measurement around my thigh was 30 inches. I was 25 inches around my knee and 23 around the calf.

“I just want to say to parents that have children that are overweight to not say anything to them to make them think they’re less than anybody else.

“They have a problem.

“My advice is to get them away from the computer and the television. Get them interested in other activities and take them to church every time the doors are open.

“And do this every day: give them a hug and a kiss. Tell them they’re beautiful and that you love them.

“And remember, ‘fat’ is an ugly word.”

Contact Susan Brittingham at 421-2029 or sbrittingham@ mcalesternews.com.