Natalie tipped the scales at almost 17st at one point

There is a size-24 wedding dress that hangs in Natalie Cowie’s loft that has never been worn and no-longer fits. Natalie, now a size eight, bought the dress in 2021 when she planned to marry Brian, but obstacles kept getting in the way - the Covid pandemic, her own illness, and then her size.

When her wedding dress arrived, she tried it on and felt deflated. She hated the way she looked and called the wedding off. She realised she could not get married until she felt better about the way she looked.

It had been a stressful time. With her mum Valerie dying unexpectedly from an infection and stroke at the age of 59 and the onset of strange tingling and numbness all over her body, Natalie had not been looking after herself properly. The

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