SLIMMER Chris Worrall swallowed his pride, shed pounds and gained a new career in a female dominated world.

Chris, aged 30, ignored the sniggers and comments of his mates and plucked up the courage to join a slimming class last summer.

Now, after losing four stones and trimming eight inches off his waist, he has been offered a consultancy by bosses at Slimming World.

Chris is only the second man in the North-west to be employed by the company teaching others how to lose weight and improve their diet.

Next week he will take charge of a slimming class in Tonge Fold, determined to get more of Bolton's over-weight men shedding the pounds.

He said: "I was the only man among 112 women at the slimming class I joined in Farnworth.

"There is definitely a stigma attached to men going in and taking slimming seriously. But I want to change all that. I've done it and I know other men can."

He added: "Maybe if a man is in charge they might not be as embarrassed."

After he returned home from watching the World Cup in France last summer, Chris looked in the mirror and did not like what he saw. Since he started a strict diet regime, 6ft 1ins Chris, of Sandpiper Close, Farnworth, went from 18 stones to 14. His neck size dropped from 17.5 inches to 15.5 and his waist cut from 40 inches to 32.

He added: "The last Wanderers shirt I bought was the biggest possible size, but now I can get in a 44-inch one." Slimming World were so impressed by his determination to succeed, despite being the only man surrounded by scores of women, that they offered him a consultancy job.

He packed in his previous work as a salesman for beer, wine and spirits to take up the challenge.

Chris will run classes every Wednesday night at Trinity Methodist Church hall, off Bury Road. More details from Chris on 861428.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.