A 19st 2lb size 24 grandma who loves baking and whose 30-year weight struggles peaked after she lost her husband to bone marrow cancer has shed nearly 9st to reach her 10st 6lb size 12 goal just before turning 60. Weight first became an issue for former nurse Christine Burnell, 59, following the birth of her second daughter in 1987, after which she could not shift her baby weight and went on to yo-yo between a size 14 and an 18 for years.
When her librarian husband John Burnell died aged 47 in 2007, both her daughters had left home and 5ft 4in Christine was soon comfort eating which, alongside health struggles of her own in her 50s, saw her weight balloon to 19st 2lb by 2019. She had flirted with slimming club Weight Watchers, now WW, down the years but, with a body mass index (BMI) of 45.7, compared to the NHS healthy range of 18.5 to 24.9, meaning she was obese, she decided “enough was enough” and went back.
Now 10st 3lb, with a healthy BMI of 24.4, Christine, of Darlington, County Durham, said: “With every decade, I have promised myself to not be fat. I said I wouldn’t be fat by 30, wouldn’t be fat by 40, wouldn’t be fat by 50 and finally I have achieved it – before I turn 60 in December!
