A GRANDAD survived a 60ft tree falling on him — thanks to the three stone he put on in lockdown.
Colin Newbury had his legs, arms and shoulders shattered when the sycamore in his garden came down in high winds.
He spent 36 days in hospital as doctors rebuilt his broken body.
But the 18-stone dad of two was told he would have been killed if he had not been carrying the extra pounds.
Colin said: “Like most people, I’d put on a bit of weight over lockdown and it was suggested that it was actually a blessing in disguise.
“The doctor made a point about my weight and I guess he was hinting that it cushioned the blow.”
The tree came down at Halloween as Colin went out in a storm to check on a fence at his home in Durrington, Wilts. Fire crews had to chop the sycamore apart so the paramedics could pull him free.
Surgeons at Salisbury District Hospital told former school site manager Colin that the blow could easily have killed him by rupturing his aorta — the main artery from the heart.
Colin added: “I put on more than three stone over the lockdowns and it was the heaviest I’d ever been.
“That bit of extra weight behind me and a whole load of luck proved a life-saver.”
He has since shed two stone and is battling wife Sarah to see who can lose most at their slimming club.
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