Staffordshire pair all set for Race for Life after losing 13 stone
They have shed the pounds and will now be pounding the ground to raise funds and awareness for a cancer charity.
Friends Louise Bishop and Karen Davies have managed to lose 13 stone between them in less than two years.
The pair from Staffordshire will now put their new-look figures to the test at Race for Life this weekend in aid of Cancer Research UK.
They became good friends while working at Gills Cables in Lichfield more than 20 years ago and are doing the race in honour of lost loved ones.
Mother-of-two Louise, aged 43, from Newgate Street, Burntwood, said teenager Stephen Sutton had also proved an inspiration.
The dinner lady at Ridgeway School lost her grandfather Jim when he was in his 70s and also her auntie Marion, aged 63, to cancer.
She joined a Slimming World group in Hammerwich in July 2013 and has managed to go from around 27 stone to 19 stone. She attends one of two classes a week at Hammerwich Cricket Club on a Tuesday morning or at Chase Terrace school on a Wednesday night.
Louise, who has got diabetes was starting to suffer vision problems and set about losing weight to control her blood pressure and cholesterol to help.
She said she was pleased to lose the pounds as it meant she would be able to do the Race for Life at Sutton Park on Sunday.
"Everybody has got somebody or knows somebody who has passed away from cancer," she said.
"One of the reasons I wanted to do it was because I could do it now. There are a lot of people we know and in the family who have passed away and I want to make people aware. A lot of it was to do with Stephen Sutton too."
Mother of-one Karen lost her mother Rose to breast cancer in 2002 and father Joseph to lung cancer in 1989. She joined Slimming World after the death of her husband Brian in January last year.
The 53 year-old of Overton Lane, Hammerwich, has gone from 16st 6oz to 11st 5oz. She also attends Slimming World at Hammerwich Community Centre.
She is now training to be a gym instructor and said: "It has given me confidence and changed my life for me. I had reached rock bottom and lost my confidence.
"It will help the charity and help Cancer Research. I lost a friend not so long ago with cancer, it is nice to think you are giving something back to help."
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