Incredible SHRINKING woman

When Karen Heffernan, 51, was too overweight for routine surgery, she knew things had to change

- WORDS: JANE COHEN, RACHEL TOMPKINS. PHOTOS: WALES NEWS SERVICE

Sometimes, even though you know the truth deep down, it takes the words of someone else to shock you into facing it. For me, it was a surgeon in summer 2023. I'd gone in to discuss my upcoming routine surgery - only he cuttingly told me I was simply too obese for the operation. My weight had been an issue for a long time, and I'd been trying to slim down, but this was a real wake-up call.

I'd always been big, but throughout my 40s, I prided myself on being fat and fit. At a size 18-20 and weighing around 20st, I enjoyed snowboarding holidays, paddleboarding and hiking. But lockdown had put paid to my active lifestyle, and I'd started relying on junk food deliveries — a habit that was hard to quit once the world got back to normal. By New Year 2023, I was ordering myself a large pepperoni pizza with chicken nuggets and cookies to keep me company while I binge-watched TV every evening, then tearing open a family-sized bag of chocolate and munching until my eyes felt heavy. Most nights I'd roll off the sofa at 2am and collapse into bed. Then I'd spend all day at my desk at my job in HR, before repeating it all again. Looking in the mirror, I could see I'd ballooned and, at 5ft 6in, my clothes had shot up to a size 26 and my boobs were an enormous 44GG. I lived in stretchy jogging bottoms and oversized T-shirts, refusing to go anywhere near the scales. Just moving was painful, and I couldn't even walk for 10 minutes without feeling out of breath. But I was stuck in a rut, unable to accept how dangerously overweight I was.