By Irma Heger SUPER slimmer Zoe Cairns is only half the person she used to be.

But that's good news to the mum of two from Little Lever who won her fight against the flab after a long battle.

She has even been told that she will have to get a new passport picture because she has changed so much.

Zoe's story will be an inspiration to anyone who is struggling to stick to a New Year's resolution.

"I got up one morning and I thought, 'I can't get any fatter'," said Zoe.

"I tried a few diets and I lost weight on them but as soon as I stopped, I put two and a half stone on."

That was May 1998 when Zoe weighed in at 19 stone, taking dress size 28. She even felt too embarassed to just eat a pastie in the street.

Now she has reached her goal weight of 11 stone, fitting into a size 14, she feels great and lives life to the full.

"If I went in town, I wouldn't eat outside," said Zoe.

"I do now, I don't care! Nobody stares at me.

"I can get both legs in one side of my old shorts now."

But she clearly remembers people's hurtful prejudices against her.

"People think because you are big that you are stupid.

"For instance, if you go and complain about anything in a shop, they look down on you because you are big - that made me feel terrible."

People who haven't seen Zoe for a while don't even recognise her these days.

One of her cousins who hadn't set eyes on her for 12 months kept staring at Zoe in a pub and only recognised her when she started speaking to him - her voice betraying her in the end.

"It was nice," said Zoe, adding that her friends think her weight loss is simply "amazing".

Her seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old son have said: "Mummy hasn't got a fat bum now."

Their 26-year-old mother doesn't mind the comment: "Children tell you the truth."

Being asthmatic, Zoe also suffered breathing problems due to her weight. But once she started shedding the pounds, her condition improved.

Feeling a lot more energetic than ever before, she has started exercising in the mini gym in one of the bedrooms.

Whereas the thought of running on the treadmill would make her break out in a sweat before, she now says: "I could do it all day."

Zoe still goes to Weight Watchers meetings to maintain her weight, but she admits she felt nervous when she went for the first time, fully expecting the room to be full of "skinny women who'd all look at her".

In the event, Zoe found a lot of support at the meetings at the Little Lever Working Men's Club. June Wolstencroft, Zoe's Weight Watchers' leader, in fact said she has been an inspiration to all at the meeting.

"I'm extremely proud of her.

"She has been a model Weight Watcher."

At first, said Zoe, she lost weight "pretty damn quick" on the points diet which doesn't have any "sins".

"I've still got all my clothes from when I was heavier - they're absolutely huge."

The former creche worker, who is now a self-confessed "lady of leisure" who enjoys her new lifestyle, said her husband splashed out £450 on new outfits for last year's September holiday to Greece. But as she had "only" lost two stone then, she will have to invest in another holiday wardrobe again for this year's trip.

"Nothing fits me now," said Zoe.

"I can't say it has been easy, dieting, but I have more confidence now - a whole lot more confidence."

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