A woman had to have her entire stomach removed after doctors found hundreds of growths taking over her body “like an alien”.
Jax Loveland had been struggling for months, constantly exhausted and dropping weight as she vomited after almost every meal.
The 38-year-old preschool teacher said she’d even started craving boxes of dry breadsticks each day just to get something down.
Weighing 15 stone and wearing a UK size 20, Jax was told her lack of energy was probably linked to asthma.
But fed up of feeling breathless and drained, she finally went back to her GP.
Doctors eventually discovered hundreds of polyps covering her stomach, along with 34 more in her large intestine.
They were bleeding internally, leaving her dangerously anaemic and unable to keep food down.
Now, after drastic life-saving surgery to remove her stomach entirely, Jax weighs 9st 11lb and says she has “endless energy” for the first time in years.
“The polyps were quickly taking me over,” Jax, from Southend, Essex, told Need To Know.
“They were sucking the life out of me each day.
“It was like an alien inside my body.
“I was told one was so big, it was the size of a satsuma.
“Turns out my whole stomach was full of hundreds of polyps.
“The surgeon said she had never seen anything like it – and she had dealt with hundreds of cases before.
Jaxs entire stomach being removed due to juvenile polyposis syndrome. (Picture: Jam Press)
“I wondered why I was eating so little all of a sudden.
“And when I got the answer, I didn’t expect it to be this bad.
“Especially, when I was told my only chance at a normal life again would be to have my whole stomach removed.”
Jax had become so breathless she struggled to hold a conversation.
Initially, doctors assumed it was her asthma, until blood tests showed she was dangerously anaemic.
She was rushed for an emergency blood transfusion, but when her levels plummeted again months later, she needed another.
An endoscopy in July 2024 finally revealed the mass of polyps.
And in February 2025, after delayed genetic testing, she was diagnosed with juvenile polyposis syndrome, a rare condition that causes huge numbers of polyps in the gut and carries a high cancer risk.
Although Jax’s growths were benign, they were bleeding uncontrollably.
She said: “I couldn’t stop vomiting blood and was unable to keep food down.
“I was eventually admitted to be fed through a tube for three months.
“On good days, I managed a spoonful of cereal for breakfast and a spoon of mash for lunch.”
In May 2025, surgeons removed her entire stomach, rerouting her oesophagus directly to her small intestine.
Now she survives on small, manageable meals while her body adjusts.
The biggest portion she can manage is “a quarter of cod and five chips” from her local chippy.
She added: “I’ve got friends who have had gastric sleeves, and I eat the same as them.
“But now my portions are of a small adult.
“So slightly bigger than the suggested 6oz at first.
“One of them joked that I’ve saved myself £8,000.
“I feel grateful.
“If the polyps had remained undetected, they’d have turned cancerous – or I’d have died from malnutrition.
“I aim to enjoy my life now and the food I eat.
“I’m lucky I can manage to eat anything I want.
“Just little and often and slightly smaller adult portions.”
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