My 600-lb Life star Charity Pierce dead at age 50 after 'being in hospice care over health issues'

Charity Pierce, who appeared on the TLC show My 600-lb Life in 2015, has died at age 50 after reportedly suffering from various health ailments. 

Pierce passed away with loved ones by her side at 1:20AM on Tuesday, a family source told TMZ.

The source said various medical conditions had resulted in Pierce being placed in hospice care for the past month or two.  

The health issues included lymphedema and fluid buildup in her lungs, with the source saying the fluid was a possible factor in her death. 

A cause of death is not yet known.  

Pierce's daughter Charly Jo also confirmed the passing, writing on her Facebook that her mother is now 'finally at peace.' 

'I wasn't going to post about this. But.. the calling and the texting is making my head feel like it's on fire,' she wrote. 'Almost all immediate family knows so, my mom passed away today. She's up with her momma and brother and sister and she's finally at peace. Charity fly high momma. I hope you know how much I love you and how grateful I was to be able to be by your side while you took your last breath.' 

In 2014 Pierce, who was housebound, was determined to have her story filmed by TLC as she was convinced it was the only way to save her life - and felt filming the show would motivate her to lose enough weight to be able to travel and see her mother, who was dying of brain cancer.

At the time, although she was almost 200lb (14st 3lb) over the recommended weight for gastric surgery, Houston-based surgeon Dr Younan Nowzaradan took her on, helping her get down to 650lb (46st) over five months, so that he could put her through the procedure that would shrink her stomach to the size of a baseball.

But sadly, the operation came too late for Pierce - who lived with daughter Charly and fiance Tony Sauer - to see her mother, who died while she was recovering from surgery.

Yet she faced further procedures to tackle her ongoing health problems, which were caused by an addiction to food that was sparked by seeing her brutal father beat her mother.

In addition to her gastric surgeries, Pierce also had to undergo an operation to remove the large masses of fatty deposits on her legs which weighed 57lbs (4st) on their own.

She almost died after going under the knife again to have 38lbs of excess skin removed more than a year later and the wound became infected. Pierce was rushed back into hospital in danger of going into septic shock.

But in the months since Charity and daughter Charly appeared on My 600lb Life, they managed to turn their lives around, with the pair revealing in a 2016 catch-up episode that therapy played a huge part in their new lifestyle, allowing them to address the psychological aspects of their dangerous dependency on food for emotional support.

In the catch-up show, the mother and daughter duo also explained how they cooked healthy meals and food shopped together.

The pair's lifestyle turnaround came two years after Charity's first surgery, and she was proud to reveal that she had lost a whopping 440lbs in that time, thanks to the numerous procedures she had undergone - and her ongoing healthy lifestyle.

Indeed, Charity had been through a remarkable transformation since her first appearance on the show back in April 2014, when she pleaded with producers to let her feature, having become convinced that it was the only way to save her life.