A mum-of-two whose binge eating spiralled after the loss of three family members looks unrecognisable after losing eight stone.
Sara Hennigan, 43, lost both her parents and brother to illness, and would take a huge bottle of fizzy pop to bed, along with a family bag of crisps and a big bar of chocolate to comfort herself.
At her worst, she weighed 18 stone and at 5ft 3in tall, she was morbidly obese. She used her late family members as her inspiration to begin an incredible weight transformation journey.
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In 2017, Sara's mum, Jackie, died from lung cancer aged 74. Her brother, John Wynne, also died from lung cancer in 2019. Her dad, Joe, died from sepsis last year.
"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," Sara said.
"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 just throwing mine away. I realised I had to change."
Sara, from North Wales, was a healthy weight during her younger years and after giving birth to her two sons, Keiran, 24, and Kallum, 20. But in the years afterwards she started piling on the weight.
"I was always really busy, doing stuff for my family and the community," she said. I didn't leave any time for myself, I didn't look after myself, and I slowly started gaining weight.
"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 turned to food again. But as the weeks passed, she found inspiration in the way her brother had battled his illness.
"I realised that I had a life, and that I had the opportunity to do something," she said. "John was my inspiration. He knew he was dying, but he still gave it his best shot."
Sara began losing weight through Slimming World in Abergele, North Wales. At her heaviest, she weighed 18 stone.
"My mobility was shocking," she said. "I had pains in my hips and my back. I was really depressed and downhearted. I got to the doors of Slimming World, and I couldn't even walk through them.
"I felt so ashamed. I just went home. It took me weeks to build up the courage to go back and join the group. And from then, I didn't look back and I began losing weight."
To add to her heartbreak, in July 2021 Sara was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She has thankfully got the all-clear after surgery. Her father and brother died later that year.
Instead of losing focus, she used each tragedy as inspiration for her weight loss. "I swapped takeaways for fakeaways and I didn't touch sweets or cakes," she said.
"I certainly didn't have the two litre bottles of fizzy drinks. I started cooking healthy recipes. I completely changed my diet. The weight dropped off but for me, the real benefit was to my mental health.
"Of course, I had setbacks, I put on some weight after dad died, but I relied on my mum and my brother in heaven, to get me through it. I took my strength from them.
"At the start of the year, I joined a gym, which was a real game changer, and I started my own walking group in the community, which was really popular. I started off walking short distances and increased it up to several miles each day."
Sara is now a size 10, weighs ten stone and has lost over eight stone. She has been named 'woman of the year', 'biggest loser' and 'Miss Slinky' at Slimming World, as well as 'member of the month' and 'star of the week' at her gym.
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