A cancer diagnosis SAVED MY LIFE

Sandra Dalton-Goldspink’s health issues kick-started her phenomenal 6st weight-loss transformation

- JENNY ACKLAND

It’s easy to convince yourself that just one more biscuit won’t hurt. But over the years, ‘just one more’ of everything had all added up, and in November 2020, aged 48, I found myself the biggest I had ever been. I was 5ft 4in, weighed 19st and could only fit into size 24 clothes.

It was difficult to pinpoint exactly how things had got so bad, but looking back, mindless eating had been my biggest struggle.

I wore a size 12-14 in my 20s, but after getting married to my husband Andrew, then 34, in 1998 and having our two sons, James in 1999 and Bradley in 2004, my weight really began to creep up.

Friday night became our family takeaway-and-movie night and we’d all tuck into pizzas or curries together while the film played.

I loved takeaways and ate a lot of processed foods. I would have a slice of pizza or a pasty, snack on my sons’ leftovers, followed by dinner and then crisps or a toastie in the evening. I didn’t realise how much food I was eating.

By my 46th birthday in 2018, I weighed around 17½st and was a size 24. And over the years, carrying so much excess weight around began to impact my health.