Too Big For The Buggy

Charmaine Brooks, 34, explains how this picture changed her life

- Anna Verdon & Jess King

There we were, pedalling round the campsite in a giant go-kart, having fun. My partner Darren, our kids Nathan, then 12, and Aimee, 10, and I were in Poole, Dorset, for a holiday and we’d decided to hire a buggy to go exploring. But then Darren decided to stop…

‘Let’s take a photo,’ he said. As a size 26, I made a point of avoiding cameras – but Darren was insistent. I tried to take a selfie of all of us – thinking that way I could keep it to headshots – but the frame wasn’t big enough, so a passerby offered to help.

I forced a smile and in a flash the photo was taken. But then I caught a glimpse of it. My thighs were spilling out of the sides of the buggy, my arms were so round and my face was huge. ‘Oh my God,’ I said. ‘Is that really what I look like?’ Darren nodded his head, and tears ran down my cheeks…