Size-32 mum who feared she was eating herself to death loses 18st

June 20, 2018 23:06

A size-32 mum who feared for her life after an 8,000-calorie-a-day diet has now lost a staggering 18st.

Dawn Dawson weighed 28st 9lbs at her biggest after gorging on two takeaways, four bacon sandwiches and two litres of fizzy pop every day.

The 38-year-old, who now weighs 10st 9lbs, ate so much that she developed type 2 diabetes, a high cholesterol level and regularly took painkillers to help with the aches and pains that piling on the pounds had caused.

However, she decided to make a change when her 61-year-old dad Steve Hadley passed away in November 2014 due to cancer, which Dawn believes was triggered by obesity.

The mum-of-two worried she would be next and ditched her junk food addiction and lost 6st 7lbs by herself before joining Slimming World in August 2015 for extra support.

By November 2017, Dawn had completed her amazing weight loss and dropped down to an incredible size 10 and now no longer has to take any form of medication.

Dawn, from Chester-Le-Street, in County Durham, said: “Losing my dad gave me a massive kick up the backside. I thought if I don’t stop eating, I’m going to die.

“I often think to myself, ‘how didn’t I end up in a serious state?’ It is a mystery to me. It is a scary thought. I don’t know how I carried on doing that for so long.

“I would eat until it hurt. I used to secret snack two or three times a day, just to make myself feel full. I would just eat anything that was put in front of me. It was just pure greed.

“I didn’t want to join my dad. I didn’t want to leave my children. I would have ended up in serious trouble. I wanted to save my life and that is what I’ve done.

“I had been big all of my life but I’m not that person anymore. I have got my life to live now and I’m going to live it.”

The full-time carer to her mum Carol Hadley, 60, revealed that because of her ballooning dress size, she couldn’t even walk to the top of her street without getting out of breath.

Dawn said: “It restricted me from doing so much. I was terrified of going out before. I was embarrassed to just go to the park with my kids [Daniel, 5 and Amelia, 3] but now I can even go on the rides.

“It is a lot easier with my kids now. They have a mum now. My husband was doing everything with them before. I am so much more involved.”

After losing the weight, Dawn was left with a lot of excess skin but in March this year she had it surgically removed to complete her transformation.

Dawn said: “It has made a massive difference. I also have a better relationship with my husband [Ian Dawson, 43] now.

“I would try and hide away from him before but I’ve got so much more confidence now. There is a lot more romance between us now and we go on dates a lot more than we did before.

“My husband thinks that I am incredible. He stood by me through the tantrums, not having chocolate and having skin removal surgery. He is amazing.

“He loved me before and he loves me now. It doesn’t matter to him and said it is about what I want.”