A woman has told of how she turned her life around and lost a six-and-a-half stone after a cruel comment on holiday left her devastated.
Rochelle Hardy was on her first big holiday to Budapest in 2019 with her new boyfriend Sam when a stranger's comment changed everything.
At the time Rochelle was a size 20 and severely overweight, weighing nearly 17 stone.
Rochelle says: “Actually, those blokes on holiday did me a favour because it was the trigger I needed to turn my life around.”
Rochelle grew up in Spain, with English parents, and said she used to get teased at school about her weight.
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She says: “I went to school in Spain, and the kids called me ‘La Gorda’ which means ‘the fat one.’
"My dad would give me spending money every day on the way to school I would pop into the sweet shop with my two euros, filling my bag with sweets.
"I have a photo of me as a teenager in a bikini, with my hands over my stomach because I am so self-conscious. I wasn’t even hugely overweight at that point, but I hated my body.
“My confidence was low, but I didn’t let people know about it. I was pretty tough on the outside.”
Rochelle moved back to the UK when she was 18 and met her current partner, Sam, 24, in Liverpool.
She says: “It sounds like a cliché, but I piled on weight after I met Sam. We were very comfortable, and we ate loads of takeaways and we loved buying pick and mix sweets.
"Sam was very skinny, but he loved me how I was and paid me lots of compliments.”
Rochelle soon weighed 16-stone and nine pounds and was a dress size 20. Being just five feet and five inches tall, she was classed as obese.
Rochelle and Sam went on their first holiday together to Budapest in 2019, where a group of men made the cruel comment.
She says: “There was a group of English blokes nearby and one said: ‘Look at that fat c*** and they all laughed. Obviously, they didn’t know that I was English, but that didn’t excuse it.
“I ran into a nearby toilet block and sobbed.
“The rest of the holiday was totally miserable for me, and I knew things had to change. That was the turning point.”
When she got back to the UK, Rochelle joined a gym and began eating low-calorie foods - and she lost more than a stone.
By October 2019, she joined a Liverpool Slimming World group with a friend and quickly began to lose weight.
Rochelle has managed to lose an amazing six and a half stones and she now weighs nine stones and 13 pounds.
Rochelle says she now exercises regularly and eats healthily.
Rochelle says: "I can happily walk into a room now and not feel like everyone is looking at me, it's changed my life. I'm not hiding myself away anymore.
“That comment in Budapest really upset me but actually they did me a huge favour. That was the turning point for me. The last laugh is on them – not me.”
Find out more on the Slimming World website.
