For Sandra Dalton-Goldspink, a cancer diagnosis led to her amazing 6st weight loss
It’s easy to convince yourself that just one more biscuit won’t hurt. But over the years, ‘just one more’ of everything had all added up, and in November 2020, aged 48, I found myself the biggest I had ever been. I was 5ft 4, weighed 18st 12lb, and could only fit into size 24 clothes.
It was difficult to pinpoint exactly how things had got so bad, but looking back, mindless eating had been my biggest struggle. I wore a size 12-14 in my 20s, but after getting married to my husband Andrew, then 34, in 1998 and having our two sons, James, in 1999, and Bradley, in 2004, my weight really began to creep up.
JUST ONE MORE
Friday night became family takeaway and movie night, and we’d all tuck into pizzas or curries together while the film played.
I ate a lot of processed foods. I would have a slice of pizza or a pasty, snack on my son’s leftovers, followed by dinner and then crisps or a toastie in the evening. I didn’t realise how much food I was eating.
By my 45th birthday in 2018, I weighed around 17 and a half stone and was a size 24.
And over the years, carrying so much excess weight around began to impact my health. I had zero energy and couldn’t walk very far without getting out of puff. Even going up the stairs was a struggle, and I’d need to stop halfway up to catch my breath.
IMAGE ISSUES
My joints would be so painful at the end of the day that Andrew would rub pain relief cream into my feet, knees and shoulders. I wouldn’t have coped without him. He knew how much I hated being so big, but he never once mentioned my size.
On our wedding day in February 1998 I’d dieted down to a size 10, but we were short of money, so I wore a plain ivory dress and we had a small hotel ceremony. It was something I had regretted ever since and Andrew often suggested renewing our vows in a church with all of our friends and family. But at my size, I couldn’t face being in the spotlight so I kept putting it off.
I was down and depressed, but it wasn’t just affecting my confidence.
I’d suffered from fibromyalgia and IBS for 26 years, and my GP was always telling me to lose weight to help ease my symptoms. I made a few halfhearted attempts at different diets, but never long enough to see results.
Then, in December 2020, I bent down to pick something up and caught my chest on the arm of the sofa.
The pain was excruciating, and for weeks every time I reached for something out of the kitchen cupboards
