I was forty and fed up of getting bigger and bigger and knew that I had to do something. I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life. Buying clothes was a complete nightmare. The last skirt that I bought before I started dieting was a size 28. I looked at this enormous skirt and thought 'how could I let my weight get so out of hand?'. So I said to myself 'I'm going to diet and this time I mean it!'

I didn't want to go to a slimming club in my area as I didn't want to meet anyone who I knew, who would find out how much I weighed. So, in the end, I chose to go to the Wollaston class. I was very nervous as I walked up to the door on the first night but said to myself 'if you don't do it now, you never will'. So we went in and were made very welcome. It was soon my turn to be weighed and as I stepped onto scales for the first time in ages I asked Lorraine not to let anyone know how much I weighed. I stepped off the scales and was horrified to see that I weighed two stone more than I had imagined. I felt really bad about it but it now made me even more determined to slim.

When I went back the following week, I was thrilled because when I stepped onto the scales I had lost 9lbs!! Losing this amount in my first week had made me realise that joining this club was the best thing I had ever done. Also, my daughter was getting married in July so I wanted to lose as much weight as I could by then. I had always said that I didn't want to be a fat 'mother of the bride'.

To me, the most important thing about a slimming club is to have an encouraging, supportive Group Leader. If you don't have this then you don't have a good club. Lorraine Cooper is brilliant at both, as well as being helpful, positive
and more importantly, she doesn't patronise or criticise you if you have had a bad week. She makes time for every member.

Over Christmas I had gained 10lbs and was dreading going back to the club but Lorraine just said "Right, Christmas is over, now it's back to the diet". So far I have lost 56lbs in
total. While I have been at this slimming club, Lorraine is definitely the best and all the other members agree with me!!

Starting Weight = 21st 2lbs
Total Weight Loss = 3st 6lbs
Weight Now =17 st 10lbs