I've Lost 9½ Stone!

After beating leukaemia and getting married, Margaret Rawling (70) explains how she took on her next challenge

- Wendy Glass

At the age of 70, I’ve lost almost nine and a half stone!

I’ve always struggled with my weight but, having previously been a size 22 on top and even bigger on the bottom half, I’m now a size 12 – and sometimes even a size 10. The last time I was a size 10, I was at school!

I decided to lose weight about five years ago, when my granddaughter, Marissa, was four. At that point, I was possibly the biggest I’d been. I’d been diagnosed with chronic lymphatic leukaemia a few years earlier and chemotherapy had made me gain even more weight – I looked like the Michelin Man when I married my husband, Richard, in 2010.

When I retired in 2011, I was looking forward to spending more time with my granddaughter. But I soon discovered I was too overweight to run about with Marissa and when we went to the park, I had to sit and watch her play rather than join in. I knew I had to do something about my weight – but it wasn’t until one of my friends mentioned she was going to Weight Watchers that I decided on my course of action.