How we GOT BACK IN OUR JEANS!

Between them they've lost more than 30st, and now these women are embracing their new weights and wardrobes

'I'VE CUT MY CHANCES OF GETTING CANCER'

Carrie Osborne, 41, lives in Ashford, Kent, with her husband Harvey, 46, and their children Charlie, 11, and Chloe, eight.

When I look back at the photographs of me from a few years ago, I cannot believe I am the same woman. I can finally run around with my children, I can finally shop in the high street and I'm no longer afraid of the camera. In fact, I'm standing proudly in front of it. Losing 12st - 50% of my body weight - has been life-changing, and it hasn't been easy. But 'I war when I realised that losing weight could save my life, I had to take action.

My weight has been a life-long struggle. When I was a teenager, my friends were all tiny, but my body had already started to balloon. My mum, Jan, cooked healthy dinners, but I'd snack on crisps and chocolate and it wasn't long before I wore a size 16.

As my weight soared, my confidence plummeted and even when I met Harvey in 2005 and he told me how beautiful I was, I rarely felt it. After our son Charlie was born in October 2011 and our daughter Chloe in May 2014, my weight had rocketed to a huge 22st.

I gorged on buttery toast for breakfast, cheese and coleslaw sandwiches, crisps and chocolate for lunch and, for dinner, I'd have curry out of a jar and a huge portion of rice, or we'd order a takeaway.

Watching Harvey and my mum and dad run around with the kids, I felt a pang of guilt. Mum had gone through chemotherapy and radiotherapy for breast cancer in 2004, and Dad had battled kidney cancer in 2008. Yet they had fought it and were now so healthy. But I couldn't run around with the kids because I was bigger than ever.

Then, in 2019, I read an article that said obesity could cause cancer. Thinking about what Mum and Dad had endured, I felt so angry with myself. Why was I doing this to myself when I had the power to reduce my risk? I knew I needed to make changes.