A father of five who once struggled to put his socks on due to a chronic condition which affected his mobility and made him retire as a police officer can now do the school run again after losing 7st. At 5ft 8in, 45-year-old Simon Bodill has dropped from 19st 1lb to 12st 1lb after starting the Man v Fat challenge at the beginning of 2022 in a bid to improve his mobility, following his diagnosis with psoriatic arthritis.
An inflammatory disease of the joints, the condition causes Simon pain and weakness in his ligaments and bones and meant he struggled even to meet his children at the gates after school. The diagnosis led to Simon retiring from his 17-year career as a police officer in July 2019, but it also started his weight loss journey – a change which he said has greatly improved both his quality of life and the time he spends with his children.
Simon, who lives in Bristol with his wife, Emma, 46, a nurse, and their children, Austin, 16, Wesley, 12, Niamh, nine, Drew, seven, and Iona, four, said: “My GP advised me that losing weight could help with my mobility problems so I wanted to do everything I could. I’ve had a longstanding condition, psoriatic arthritis, which led to me retiring from the police due to ill health and I also suffer from severe pain so anything that could improve my quality of life, I was willing to try.”
