Mummy's big 22st shame

Jo Parkes, 32, only wanted to read to her little girls, but something huge was stopping her..

- Anna Verdon & Kelly Strange

To look at this photo, my baggy grey T-shirt straining across my bulge, it’s clear that my health was in a bad way. At a size 30, my joints ached, I had high cholesterol and was borderline diabetic. But for me those weren’t the worst things, because one terrible night I realised that I was letting down two of the most important people in my life – my own children.

My weight problem had started when I went to secondary school in September 1996. It was just puppy fat at first, but embarrassed, I stopped eating around my friends.

By the time I got home I’d be starving. With both my parents at work I had free rein of the kitchen and, while my younger siblings Richard, Nicola and Jonny would have a couple of snacks, I’d binge on family sized slabs of chocolate, along with crisps and mini apple pies. Then I’d have a large helping of chilli for dinner.

Standing out

I put on about a stone a year and by the time I left school, aged 18, I weighed 19st. I hated that I couldn’t wear the same clothes as my friends and on nights out I’d feel horrendous. I looked so big next to them Finally I can read them a story and I never got chatted up by guys.

A couple of months later I started working in a local nursery close to my home in Harborough, Leicestershire. I loved my job, but being on my feet all day meant I worked up an appetite, too. So, when I got home I’d often get a takeaway – Chinese or pizza – or throw some chicken Kievs or fish fingers in the oven.

Finding love

At 5ft 3in and a size 24, my body struggled, but I felt helpless. Then, in April 2008, I was on Facebook when I came across a man named Guy and we started messaging. At 23, he was six years older and worked asa textiles manager in women’s fashion.