‘I lost 20 stone after doctors said my weight would kill me in weeks’
Suzanne Evans was recording videos for her sons to watch in case she couldn’t lose the weight in time
A mother-of-two has dropped an incredible 20 stone after doctors warned that her weight was causing her health to decline so rapidly she could face organ failure and death within a month if she failed to take action. Suzanne Evans had tipped the scales at over 31 stone and had been confined to a wheelchair for six years as her excessive weight left her unable to walk.
When doctors revealed that the excess pounds were causing her kidneys and liver to shut down, whilst placing her heart under almost unbearable pressure, the 40 year old could only focus on her two young sons, aged just 10 and 13 at the time. She told NeedToKnow: "I recorded videos for them to watch if I wasn't there any more.
"It was emotional. But I was determined to lose weight and improve my health for them. It was the worst feeling and I was in the worst place. I didn't want to be 31 stone. Doctors said I was so ill because of my weight, but they didn't have faith in me that I would fight so hard to lose the weight. They thought the damage had been done."
The Hereford resident first began developing an addiction to sugar and food in 2008 following her father's passing. By 2018, her health was deteriorating rapidly and she found herself being "rushed into hospital every other week" for an entire year.
She said: "Every single part of my body radiated pain. I could hardly breathe or move without excruciating pain."
The self-confessed sugar addict was perpetually eating , even stashing a drawer full of sweets, crisps and chocolates in her bedroom just in case she woke up in the night. When she became wheelchair-bound in 2014, Suzanne's mum stepped in as her carer, but her eating habits remained unchanged.
In February 2019, after returning home from hospital with the devastating deadline, Suzanne was determined to turn her life around despite previous diet failures. She adopted the Slimming World plan, focusing on whole foods.
Just one week into her new regimen, spurred on by the grim prognosis, Suzanne had already shed a stone. By the end of the first month, she was over two stone lighter and the weight continued to drop off.
However, it wasn't a walk in the park. Suzanne battled with sugar withdrawal symptoms that gave her "the shakes", but she persevered, eventually regaining her ability to walk and sticking to her diet plan.
She confessed: "I really was fighting for my life. My doctor cried a year later when I walked into the surgery. It was the first time they'd seen me walk in a long time."
Fast forward to today, Suzanne has lost an astonishing 20 stone and now weighs just 11st 4lbs. To maintain her new figure, she sticks to two nutritious meals a day, typically overnight oats with fruit for breakfast and a chicken stir fry for dinner.
Suzanne revealed: "People have noticed my weight loss and ask me what I have done to lose so much weight. I tell them it is all down to determination, willpower and Slimming World. They ask me what else I did and the answer is nothing. I just made the decision to change my life and live."