CHIPPENHAM firefighters, police officers and ambulance staff were called out to the Pines Hotel early on Tuesday evening when 31 stone Ted Whitlock fell ill and had to be rushed to hospital.

The emergency services feared Mr Whitlock would have to be winched from a first floor window again, as he had been in October when he fell unconscious and ambulance staff could not carry him down the stairs.

Fortunately this time Mr Whitlock was in the recreation room on the ground floor, and ambulance staff, assisted by firefighters, could wheel him from the hotel into an ambulance.

On Tuesday 44-year-old Mr Whitlock was shaking and feeling faint, and feared he was suffering a mild heart attack.

He was taken to the Accident and Emergency department at Bath's Royal United Hospital, where doctors checked him over and decided he was fit enough to return home.

A friend collected him and returned Mr Whitlock to the Pines by 7.30pm.

Mr Whitlock is due to appear on Diet or Die, a BBC1 television documentary about overweight people, to be televised in February or March .

He was forced to leave his home in Larkham Rise when he found out his wife Sue was seeing another man.

Now she is seeking a divorce and the first court hearing took place on December 13.

But Mr Whitlock has not given up hope of a reconciliation. He has lost three stone in weight since his earlier collapse.