A SELF-CONFESSED “chubby kid” has become a weight loss consultant after her gastric band failed and her Slimming World class paved the way for success.

Amateur dramatics Pukka Productions boss Sarah Creasey found that her youngers days caused the spotlight to fall on her dress size and she lost weight with Slimming World, aged 19, until she became pregnant years later.

Mrs Creasey said: “Life situations have never been judged by the value of my achievement, but rather my dress size on the day of achieving it.

“My weight problem started as the chubby kid of a slim mum.

“She tried to help, encouraging me to lose weight for holidays, parties, but dad would give me money to pop to the shop and buy some sweets, and so the yo-yo began.

“As an overweight teenager I hid behind baggy jeans and over-sized tops, but at university my weight absolutely ballooned.

“My first visit to Slimming world was back in 1993.

“I was 19 and was mortified when the scales read 15stone 7pound.

“The weight stayed off for years until the day I found out I was pregnant.

“I started eating for two on day one.

“I convinced myself that I wasn’t getting fat, I was pregnant.

“But when I weighed 18 and a half stone after the baby was born, the truth was inevitable.”

She re-joined Slimming world when her child was 18 months old, but pregnancy number two put a halt to her happy weight and the healthy eating in its tracks.

She said: “I spent five years living a miserable existence.

“I didn’t want to go to parties because I couldn’t find clothes to fit.

“I could only buy clothes from ‘plus size’ stores and felt that they were older than my years.

“I was a young professional mum.

“I should have been full of energy, looking trendy and enjoying my life, but I was beyond unhappy.

“I set up my own theatre company and threw myself into that.

“I loved seeing young, beautiful people performing on the stage and prided myself in being a vital part of that performance even though I was hiding at the back in an XXXL t-shirt.

“The world became a much darker place for me when my marriage crumbled.

“It was all very mutual and friendly, but that didn’t stop it being a difficult time. Reading a text message from my ex-husband’s mobile phone from a female friend asking about his ‘fat wife’ literally destroyed me.

“She only acknowledged my fat.”

She took out a bank loan of £10,000 in 2006 and booked herself in for a gastric band.

She lost two stone and met her partner; weighing 14 stone when she married in 2008.

But problems began again with her weight.

“Nobody told me that to keep losing weight with a band, you have to keep tightening it,” she said.

“A fill costs around about £120 every time and the fill restricts your food.

“But to keep losing weight, I had to keep my band tight.

“That had many side-effects.

“I couldn’t ever eat a meal with my friends and family.

“Even a small mouth full of food would leave me running to the toilet to be sick.

“I could only take the tiniest sips of water so started to feel quite dehydrated.

“I suffered from terrible acid reflux and simply lying down would make me feel like I was going to drown.

“The constant vomiting was causing my teeth to rot.

“I was living as an enforced bulimic. I was starving. I was dehydrated and I was so very tired.

“I had to make a change.

“I removed fluid from my band enabling me to eat and drink. Immediately, I felt healthier and rested.

“But the weight started to creep back on immediately.

“By Christmas 2016 I was back up to 14 and a half stone. The shame was back. The self-loathing was back. The desperation was back.”

Mrs Creasey re-joined Slimming World and reached her target weight on February 4 this year.

She said: “I’m desperate to continue to food optimise for life and encourage others to do the same. I owe an incredible amount of gratitude to my inspiring consultant, Martin Woodsford.

“He’s changed my life and inspired me to reach out and change the lives of others.

Her new group starts at Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church Hall, Aberystwyth Crescent, at 5.30pm on Tuesday, April 24.

Call 07917 881220 of find her on Facebook @Sarah Creasey