Originally published 19 January 2007;
'I could easily eat a family bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk after dinner. I tried dieting but would lapse after a few months. It was soul-destroying.'
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Standing on the scales, Nerys McGarry sighed as the needle finally settled at 21st.
She’d tried dieting but always failed. But when she reached a size 32 and was out of breath and suffering worrying chest pains, Nerys vowed to take drastic action for the sake of her health and signed up for gastric bypass surgery.
“But the worst thing was my boobs,” says Nerys, 37. “They’d always been my only asset, but they ended up hanging down by my hips. One was five inches longer than the other. When I put on my pyjama top they’d poke out of the bottom – I’d end up tucking them into my trousers.
At 5ft 10, Nerys, from Lincolnshire, had never been skinny. But it was in
“I’m a very greedy person and I don’t like exercise,” she happily admits.
Each night, once the children were in bed, Nerys would open a bottle of wine and wolf down a takeaway with husband Paul, 42, who stayed at home full-time to care for the kids.
“I don’t seem to have an off button when it comes to food,” she says. “I could easily eat a family bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk after dinner. I tried dieting but would lapse after a few months. It was soul-destroying.
“Paul and the kids never complained about how I looked, but as I got bigger I paid less attention to my appearance. I never wore make-up, cut my own hair and wore elasticated trousers. I could live with all that, but when I started getting chest pains and feeling out of breath I got worried.”
“Within days I started to lose weight,” remembers Nerys. “I gave up booze completely and I could only have liquids for the first few weeks. Then I moved on to child-sized portions of food such as shepherd’s pie.”
“I looked like ET. I had a huge flap of skin hanging to my knees and I looked flat-chested because the boobs I had left were hanging down round my hips.”
“I looked like ET,” says Nerys. “I had a huge flap of skin hanging to my knees and I looked flat-chested because the boobs I had left were hanging down round my hips.”
Paul was supportive, but Nerys was miserable. Frantic to get rid of the ugly skin, and after once again being refused surgery on the NHS, she contacted the makers of C4 TV programme 10 Years Younger, who agreed to give her a makeover for the show.
“The surgeon said I had the worst drooping breasts he’d ever seen. When strangers had to guess my age looking at photos of me in a bikini, one thought I was an OAP,” she says.
'Now I walk five miles a day for my job. I eat healthily and exercise with the children. I feel like a totally new person.'
“I was bruised but I could see the difference immediately. I looked down and had this flat stomach – it was amazing. And my boobs pointed north not south!” she says.
Nerys is so thrilled with her size 12 body, she’s since spent a fortune on sexy lingerie.
Her life has changed immeasurably. She now works as a community police officer – a job she couldn’t do when she weighed so much.
“I walk five miles a day for my job. I eat healthily and exercise with the children. I feel like a totally new person. I used to hide away but now I walk tall,” she says.
Husband Paul is astonished by her transformation: “Beauty is from within, but she looks absolutely fantastic now.”