I was too fat to wear shoes. Even Ozempic didn't work and made my hair fall out. But a radical slimming solution helped me shed two thirds of my body weight - and keep it off

Brenda Langford volition ne'er hide the time schoolhouse bullies made elephant noises astatine her.

'I felt truthful ashamed of my body, I felt I didn't acceptable successful this world. I was bullied, teased and humiliated. I felt cipher liked maine due to the fact that of my size,' she tells me. 

Relentlessly bullied passim superior and precocious school, Brenda was an casual people with a lazy oculus and heavy glasses. She turned to junk nutrient to numb her symptom and an overweight kid became an obese adult. 

'I didn't devour vegetables oregon caller fruit. Food became my cause and sweetener made maine consciousness better. I lived connected nutrient that wasn't food,' she says. 

Brenda gorged connected sugary cereals, Pop Tarts, and mac 'n' cheese.  

At 21, portion her friends were astatine assemblage surviving their champion lives, Brenda fell large with her archetypal son, Brandon, and the value piled on, reaching 140kg (309 lbs oregon 22 st) by the clip helium was born. Then, 2 years later, came her 2nd child, Kyle, matrimony to cook hubby Matt, and years of eating 'fatty food, takeaways and junk'.

By her 30s, Brenda was suffering excruciating migraines truthful terrible she was prescribed painkillers conscionable to function. 'I couldn't get doctors to instrumentality maine seriously, and each they did was shove pills down my throat,' she says.

Brenda lone had 1 brace of shoes; a cheap, disfigured orthopaedic brace from the pharmacist were the lone ones that fitted her. 'I had excessively overmuch fluid build-up successful my feet - thing would fit,' she says.

Brenda's value continued to creep up. By the clip she was conscionable 40, she weighed 222kg (490 lbs oregon astir 35 st) and had mislaid her mobility.

Her backmost would prehend up and she couldn't locomotion without clutching the walls. 'I couldn't adjacent locomotion down retired hallway without shouting astatine the kids to bring maine a chair. I couldn't spell market shopping. If I watched my kids play sport, I had to beryllium successful a seat that could clasp 250 kilograms, and my hubby had to propulsion maine retired of it.'

Then came the nationalist humiliation. 'Once I got into a assistance astatine the station, and the assistance doors were jammed. 'A pistillate yelled: "Get the abdominous 1 off!" I was dying wrong and it was the longest elevator thrust of my life.'

There was besides the clip extracurricular a Woolworths supermarket erstwhile a young kid shouted, 'Holy f***, you're fat!' portion 2 grown men laughed.

'I stopped going out. I stopped living,' Brenda admits. 

In 2012, Brenda's satellite imploded. Her parent died of crab and her begetter soon aft from liver cirrhosis. Brenda discovered her ain liver was severely infiltrated with abdominous and her doc gave her a stark warning: 'You won't unrecorded different 5 years.'

That was 10 years ago.

In 2018, Brenda, past 42, underwent gastric sleeve surgery, a value nonaccomplishment process wherever portion of the tummy is removed and replaced by a tiny pouch. This restricts the magnitude of nutrient a idiosyncratic tin eat.

The cognition was performed nether value nonaccomplishment surgeon Dr Garth McCleod. 'It was the champion determination of my life. The country took 3 hours alternatively of 45 minutes due to the fact that they had to determination my liver retired of the way,' she says. 

She mislaid 12kg (26.5 lbs oregon astir 2 st) successful the archetypal month, and 80kg (176 lbs oregon 12 st 8 lbs) successful the archetypal twelvemonth pursuing the operation.

'The value came disconnected fast. My feet shrank, I felt fantastic and I was doing aqua aerobics with 80-year-old ladies and loved it. For the archetypal clip successful my beingness I felt hopeful.'

But aft the alleged honeymoon period, the existent enactment began.

'I started to get bare again,' she tells me. 'I knew I had to enactment successful a batch of hard enactment due to the fact that I had a agelong mode to go.'

Brenda enrolled successful TAFE, a higher-education programme successful Australia, and got certified to go a assemblage enactment idiosyncratic and began helping others.

'I met a batch of overweight radical and recognised the sadness successful their eyes. When idiosyncratic is obese and says they're happy, I don't judge it. You can't unrecorded a mean beingness successful that body.'

Despite the value falling off, Brenda was near with a reminder of her erstwhile body: her excess skin. 'I felt similar a melted candle,' she admits. 

She underwent 4 large reconstructive surgeries, performed by integrative surgeon Dr Matthew Peters and costing her much than AU$70,000 (US$45,600 or £36,400), including a afloat little assemblage assistance to get escaped of her 'apron skin,' an precocious assemblage lift, limb country and thigh reconstruction.

'I person needed 3 abdominoplasties, including 2 caller belly buttons owed to the severity of my damaged skin,' she adds.

Her archetypal country unsocial progressive much than 800 sutures and lasted 9 hours.

'It was brutal. My tegument was truthful severely damaged erstwhile I was obese that it took maine a agelong clip to get taut again. Now I tin deterioration activewear. I utilized to beryllium a men's 7XXL; present I americium a size 12. I spell to the gym six days a week, tin market store and person truthful overmuch much energy.'

Brenda concisely tried Ozempic past twelvemonth but stopped aft 4 months owed to the terrible broadside effects. 'It stopped the cravings, but I wasn't getting capable nutrients. My hairsbreadth started to autumn retired and I became constipated,' she says.

Brenda, present 92kg (203 lbs oregon 14 st 7 lbs), is present connected a strict repast program and, astatine the property of 49, feels healthier than ever. 'I devour nutrient and vegetables, effect and tons of protein. I don't devour accelerated nutrient anymore.'

Gone are the days of disfigured orthopaedic sandals arsenic she is the arrogant proprietor of 25 pairs of shoes and counting. She is besides an ambassador for activewear marque Exotic Athletica.

She is penning a publication astir her acquisition called 'Massive Weight Loss Saved My Life', which is retired adjacent year.

'I privation radical to cognize you don't person to beryllium stuck. It's not conscionable astir food; it's astir shame and self-worth.'

And to the bullies that tormented her?

'I don't forgive them,' she says. 'One of the worst bullies tried to person maine connected Facebook recently. I deleted the request.

'A infinitesimal that was plain comic to bullies tin impact idiosyncratic for the remainder of their lives. Do better.'

Massive Weight Loss Saved My Life, by Ultimate World Publishing, is retired adjacent year.