A woman who lost three close family members has taken inspiration from her tragedy and lost an amazing eight stones. Heartbroken Sara Hennigan found comfort in food, after losing her mum and brother to cancer and her dad to sepsis. She also battled cancer herself.
At her lowest, the mum-of-two would lock herself away and binge eat. Her weight hit 18 stones and at only 5'3", she was morbidly obese. But now, after losing over eight stones, Sara weighs 10 stones and credits her late family members as her inspiration.
Sara, 43, said: "Each night, I took a big bottle of Fanta, a family bag of crisps and a family-size chocolate bar, to bed with me. I was eating for comfort. But then I realised how hard a battle my mother and brother and father had fought. They had done everything to hold on to their lives, yet I was throwing mine away. I realised I had to change."
Sara was slim through her younger days and even after giving birth to her two sons, Keiran, 24, and Kallum, 20. But in the years afterwards, she began piling on weight. She said: "I was always really busy, doing stuff for my family and the community. I didn't leave any time for myself, I didn't look after myself, and I slowly started gaining weight."
In 2017, Sara's mum, Jackie, died from lung cancer aged 74. Her brother, John Wynne, died also from lung cancer in 2019. And her dad, Joe, died from sepsis last year.
Sara, from North Wales, said: "I was really close to my mum. In her final days, she came to live with me, and I cared for her. It broke my heart when she died. It was the worst pain I have ever felt and I ate to make myself feel better. We were still grieving for mum when my brother, John, was diagnosed with exactly the same cancer. He had a tumour in the middle of his lungs, just as she did. It felt so cruel, for our family to be struck twice.
"I began raising money for immunotherapy treatment and John completely changed his diet and lifestyle; he started eating fish and white meat and cut out all processed foods. He did lots of research and he became very scientific about his entire approach. He went to therapists to get the toxins out of his body. He tried cannabis oil. He did everything he could, and I was convinced he was going to make it. He was such a strong character."
But John died aged 54 in June 2019, leaving Sara devastated. She said: "I was so low, and I turned to food again. Each night, I'd take a huge bottle of fizzy pop to bed with me, along with a family bag of crisps and a big bar of chocolate. I thought that because nobody could see me, I could get away with it."
