The Incredible Shrinking Man.

There's bags of fun for jolly David Cox's kids these days measuring up to the man-mountain dad used to be. For hospital treatment has made those circus-size slacks far too vast for his diminishing assets. Father-of-three David, 42, used to be a 420lbs Goliath. Then doctors ordered a clampdown on his giant over-eating. A clamp was wired to his mouth at a Manchester hospital. A tiny hole allows in only liquids and the smallest particles of food. And in six months the man they used to call Hampty Dumpty has shed an astonishing 140lbs. That isn't all he's lost, either. Doctors unlocked his jaws for a while the other day and he found that he'd triumphed over his mighty appetite for his wife Wilhelmina's cooking. Now David is wired up again. For he aims to carry on shrinking. Young David, 11, and Graham, nine, show dad how big he used to b (Photo by Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)