A CARLISLE woman has lost over eight stone with Slimming World - saying she has finally been ‘able to buy a swimming costume for the first time in 20 years.’

Trudy Ferguson, 56, from Carlisle, first joined her local Slimming World group in 2019 via a referral from her GP as part of the NHS 12 free weeks of Slimming World group.

After continuing herself for three months, Trudy lost four stone. But Covid hit and, combined with some family issues, Trudy regained the weight she had lost and some more.

In July 2023 Trudy walked back through the doors of her local Slimming World group. She said: “I was in a very bad place. My mental health was at an all time low, my weight had escalated, and I was morbidly obese.

“I was physically unfit and would get out of breath even walking just a short distance and I was only 56 years of age.

“Things couldn’t continue the way they were and I needed to make a change. It was time to take stock.”

She set a goal to get fitter and improve her mental health, making a promise to her husband that by 2024 she would be fit enough to go on holiday and enjoy both sight seeing and walking again, having last been away in 2019.

Restarting the group, Trudy weighed 20 stone and 12 lbs. After purchasing a 12 week countdown, she set herself a target weight of 12 stone 7lbs and was ‘determined to make the changes’.

A year on, Trudy has reached her target weight and says that her ‘all round fitness is at its best’.

Trudy said: “I have now achieved my personal target weight of 12 stone 7 lbs and know that with the support of my Slimming World Group, my consultant, group of fellow members and the 12-week programme I will maintain my new healthy weight forever.

“I love that I can now go shopping and buy clothes off the rail in a size 14. Previously I would order online and have to order a size 26/28."

On achieving her six stone award, Trudy treated herself to a holiday of a lifetime and visited New Zealand with her aunt. She said: “I found I was fit enough [to walk] for miles and benefited greatly seeing some spectacular scenery.

“I even bought myself a swimming costume for the first time in 20 years.”