Top slimmer Vikki sheds a massive 16st

Eight years ago, Vikki Billingham could barely manage a trip to the shops. At 27st, not only did she struggle to get around, she was too embarrassed to go out very often.

The mother-of-two found it difficult to get clothes to fit her size 32 figure. But ultimately, her weight was preventing her from being active with her young daughter. She struggled to take her to the playground without getting out of breath.

This spurred her to take action to lose weight. Now, with the help of diet magazines and a Black Country slimming group, the super slimmer is down to a svelte 10st 9lbs – and a size 12 – and loves nothing more than a trip out to get the latest fashions.

"It got to a certain point and I just had enough – I could hardly do anything with my daughter Jessica, who was three at the time, and I got sick of how I was living my life," said care assistant Vikki.

"I couldn't get about easily as I'd get out of breath, and shopping was a depressing experience. Finding something that fit was tough and even when you did it didn't look right, so I dressed a lot older than I was.

"It's so much easier now, it's lovely to be able to walk in a shop and pick anything up and know it will fit. I feel so much younger now than I did back then."

Now aged 38, Vikki's long journey started out with her buying Slimming World magazines for their recipes and cooking them up at home in Ellis Avenue, Brierley Hill. "I was too embarrassed to even go to the groups to start with – I wanted to lose a bit of weight first," she admitted. "I lost about 11st on my own but then started to find the last few stone were really difficult to shift.

"So about four years ago I started going to the group which meets at the Oakfield Centre in Brettell Lane and they gave me the support I needed to keep going."

Before, she said, her diet was full of "all the wrong things" – a lot of bread, fried food and takeaways, and very little fruit and vegetables. Now, the Slimming World recipes have become part of her life and she cooks everything from scratch, throwing in lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and low-fat, protein-filled food such as fish.

As well as the diet, Miss Billingham said she started going on three walks a week, and in January this year joined a gym to improve her fitness and lose the two pounds that will take her to her ideal weight. "It has changed my life completely – I do things now that I never would have dreamed of doing just a few years ago," she said.