'I thought I was going to die on the operating table, so I lost 18 stone to save my own life'

A mum who weighed 28 stone and feared she would die on the operating table has saved her own life by losing an impressive 18 stone. Five years ago Kelly Barker, 48, was advised by her GP to go ahead with weight loss surgery, but she was terrified she wouldn't survive the procedure due to her excessive weight.

Kelly, who works as a primary school teacher, has struggled with her weight ever since she was a child and fell into a vicious cycle of comfort eating during her adult years. It was only when she 'couldn't shake the feeling' that she might die when she made simple changes to her diet and routine to turn her life around.

Now named Slimming World's Woman of the Year, the mum-of-one now weighs 10st 7lbs and dropped down from a dress size 32 to a size 10 in five years. She has now only saved her own life by shifting the weight, but she has a new-found close relationship with her son too.

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Kelly, from Merseyside, said: "I struggled with my weight my whole life. As a child, I was placed on a special diet and had to be weighed at school. While the other children were eating fish and chips, I would have to eat a separate meal on my own - usually something bland like boiled fish and potatoes. It made me believe that weight loss was miserable, embarrassing and shameful, and it didn't work - I gained weight every year into my adulthood."

The mum, who lives with her 15-year-old son Josh, said going away to university made her put on more weight, reports the Mirror. "As soon as I had control over my own food choices, it was like the floodgates opened. Everything I