A man claims his body is 'eating itself' due to a condition that makes him vomit every time he consumes food.
Lee Baker, of Margate, Kent, suffers from gastroparesis, which affects the normal movements of the muscles in the stomach, preventing it from emptying properly.
This has left the 45-year-old - who used to work as a chocolate salesman - unable to eat solid food for the past six years and looking like a 'skeleton with skin'.
Surviving on just four milkshakes a day, he is now severely malnourished, going from 17st 9lbs (114kg) two years ago to just 7st 8lbs (50kg) today.
After doctors warned he may be forced to have a feeding tube fitted, Mr Baker is finally making 'good progress' following a gastric pacemaker that regulates the movement of his stomach.
Lee Baker claims his body is 'eating itself' due to a condition that makes him vomit every time he consumes food. He is pictured left in 2008 in his former job as a chocolate salesman, before his extreme weight loss (seen right in a recent picture) forced him to quit
Mr Baker (pictured with his wife Alison) suffers from gastroparesis, which affects the normal movements of the muscles in the stomach, preventing it from emptying. This has left him unable to eat solid food for the past six years, with the father-of-two existing on milkshakes
Speaking of his condition, Mr Baker said: 'My body doesn't stop me from physically eating anything solid.
'At the moment, if I put anything in my stomach or down my mouth, within a minute or two, five minutes at the latest, it's back as it went down, doesn't break up, doesn't do anything.
'My muscles now are being eaten away. My fat's already been eaten away by the disease, so they'll be nothing left of me.
'I can't walk very much anymore, so I find it hard to get upstairs. It's changed everything about every aspect of my life.'
Mr Baker - who is father to 11-year-old Grace and 10-year-old Kian - is so weak he is barely able to walk and regularly collapses from exhaustion.
His wife Alison Baker said: 'He's just a skeleton with skin on at the moment. It's heartbreaking.
'He's not so energetic, he can't do as much as he used to like to do.
'So it has been harder but he always tries to keep a smile on his face.'
Just two years ago, Mr Baker weighed 17st 9lbs (seen right). Unable to eat without bringing his food straight back up again, his weight has plummeted to just 7st 8lbs today (seen left)
Mrs Baker (pictured right with her husband before he became unwell) describes him as a 'skeleton with skin' and calls the whole ordeal 'heartbreaking'. Mr Baker is so severely malnourished and skinny (seen left), he frequently collapses and struggles to walk
Mr Baker believes his gastroparesis was triggered by prescribed treatment for his sarcoidosis – a rare condition that causes small patches of red and swollen tissue in the internal organs.
After being diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 2009, Mr Baker then developed type 2 diabetes around the time he started vomiting.
The father-of-two went without a gastroparesis diagnosis for four years and hit rock bottom.
'The darkest moments I've had with this - well the whole illness from the sarcoidosis down to diabetes and gastroparesis - I was told it was in my head and I was making it
