Shropshire super slimmer Sophie sheds 14 stone

The 29-year-old from Oswestry celebrated her birthday this week in a size 12 dress and with fiancé Robert Jones.

Yet last year she was told she was facing surgery because of her weight.

Sophie had reached a dress size 32 and had a chronic skin condition connected with her obesity.

“I saw the consultant and was told that I had the option of losing weight or having surgery," she said.

“I came out of that appointment in January 2019 and decided then that I had to lose the weight. I contacted Emma Thompstone, a slimming world consultant, and she suggested going along to her group in Oswestry.

“Walking through that door was the hardest thing I have done but I knew I had to do it. I had had a problem with my weight since the age of four but I was too rebellious to go ‘on a diet’ and when my dad died it really piled on.”

Sophie said that she had a warm welcome from Emma and the other members of the group.

She lost weight quickly, averaging five and a half pounds a week.

“By the July I came off all the medication that I was on for the skin condition, it had cleared up," she added.

“Slimming World fitted round my role as a support worker with adults with learning disabilities because it was so flexible.”

Reaching her target weight she celebrated as she did each week, with a coffee with her mum, who she said was so proud of her weight loss journey.

“When you have never been able to buy clothes in a ‘normal size dress shop’ going and choosing an outfit gives you such a buzz. I am having the best life," she said.

Sophie got engaged on Valentine’s Day this year. “Robert met me when I was at my biggest and said that as I lost weight I came alive," she added.

Emma Thompstone said members of her Slimming World group had voted Sophie as the group’s slimmer of the year and she will now go forward to a national competition.

Information is available from the Slimming World website.