Thank You For Being My Thin-Spiration

Losing my sister was the wake-up call I needed By Sarah Hollinshead, 37, from Grantham, Lincolnshire

- Kelly Strange

Slumping on the sofa after school, my older sister Clare knew how to cheer me up.

‘Here you go,’ she said, passing me a family-size packet of choccie biscuits.

Together we scoffed the lot.

We were both overweight, but Clare was bigger and got bullied. I was her shoulder to cry on.

‘The diet starts tomorrow,’ we agreed, before a huge, homecooked dinner, then chocolate.

Only, tomorrow never came.

Thankfully, the bullying stopped when we left school, and though neither of us lost weight, we found happiness.

Aged 19, Clare fell pregnant with her son. Sadly, she split with his dad, but doted on her boy.

Six years on, in June 2005, I met my husband Paul, then 27, and was delighted to fall pregnant a year later.

‘I love eating for two,’I told Clare.

‘Yeah, I know, it’s guilt-free,’ she laughed.

By then, I was a size-16/18, and Clare a size-22.

She’d recently met someone, and had another baby, a girl.

As my pregnancy progressed, I craved fast food and puddings, especially Paul’s mum’s apple crumble. Yum!

In January 2007, I had our daughter Lexie.

She weighed a healthy 8lb, while I was an obese 17st.

Months later, I fell pregnant again. And, in November 2008, I gave birth to Oscar.

Tipping the scales at more than 17st, and a dress size-20, I was the biggest I’d ever been.

Although Clare lived in London, and I wasin Lincolnshire, she was still my confidante.

‘I feel so miserable this big,’ I admitted one night on the phone.