Losing 12 stone saved my life...

Sherri says healing her relationship with food was key to massive change

- BY HANNAH BOWMER

Sherri Begbie's battle with her weight dates right back to school when she was cruelly teased for being bigger than her friends.

"I was an easy target for bullies," she says. "I had a difficult home environment. There was no communication. It's probably why I don't have children now.

"I'd eat to make myself feel better. I withdrew into myself, becoming anxious, depressed, and suicidal."

A debilitating three-decade-long binge-eating disorder followed.

At her heaviest, she was around 24 stone - and life became unbearable.

Walking for more than five minutes left her in pain and breathless and she suffered from high blood pressure, sleep apnoea and pre-diabetes. Simple tasks such as bathing or putting on shoes became almost impossible.

Sherri, 38, says: "I didn't have a life. I wouldn't go out, I stopped talking to friends. I locked myself away. I was lucky if I got 800 steps a day.