She's on cloud nine after giving birth to two beautiful twin

boys and shedding the baby weight afterwards. Now daredevil

Karen Salt is about to take the plunge for a cause close to her

heart. Tamzin Hindmarch reports

2008 has been pretty remarkable for proud mum Karen

Salt.

The 34-year-old has given birth to precious twin boys, has

quickly lost almost a stone in post-natal weight, and is

juggling family life with book-keeping for her husband Lee's

engineering business.

In a few weeks' time, she'll become a high-flyer – literally

– as she braves a charity skydive at 10,000ft.

Thrilled that the weight she piled on during a difficult

pregnancy is coming off, and with babies Max and Tom settled

into a happy routine, she's looking forward to the whiteknuckle

fund-raiser that would terrify most.

"I'll be jumping out of a plane at 10,000ft, and, yes, I'm

really, really nervous," she says.

"But every time I look at Max and Tom, I feel incredibly

proud. They are such a joy and I can't imagine life without

them now."

The inspiration for her mission is the charity TAMBA – the

Twins and Multiple Births Association.

"While I was pregnant, I spent time on the internet finding

out all sorts of things to do with twins and I found out about

TAMBA," Karen explains.

"It is there to help the growing number of families

experiencing multiple births, and offers support groups,

including to parents of children with special needs, or

premature twins.

"It's the 30th anniversary of the charity this year and

they're looking for 30 people to jump. The date for the jump is

not confirmed yet, but it will be some time around the end of

September, and I've asked for it to be at Whitchurch

Airfield.

"I've paid the £195 cost of the flight myself, so that means

every penny donated on top will go directly to the

charity."

Karen has trimmed down ahead of the jump, losing almost a

stone since joining Longton WeightWatchers in June.

"I had a good figure up until my 30s. It was only when I had

the boys that, because I had no time, I started to eat the

rubbish that led to my post-natal weight gain," says Karen, who

lives in Arbourfield Drive, Berry Hill, with Lee, aged 40, the

twins, and 13-year-old daughter Aimee.

"When I had Aimee, I was eating very healthily and

exercising. Afterwards, I lost the weight straight away. But

with the boys, the pregnancy was difficult, especially during

the last two months.

"I was told that both of them were large and that's why my

body was blowing up so much. I was huge, and my legs were all

swollen because of the pressure. I couldn't get out of the

house.."

Normally quite active, Karen instead found herself confined

to her bed or the sofa.

"By then, I was worrying about everything and I couldn't

wait to get the twins out," she admits. "I was so frightened of

losing one of my babies.

"Because identical twins share the same placenta, there's a

chance that one can take more of the blood supply and oxygen

and nutrients. As a consequence, one may be overfeeding while

the other is starving. I was having to have a scan every week

to check there were no signs of this condition, which is known

as Twin-To-Twin Transfer Syndrome."

The premature birth thankfully ran smoothly, and healthy Tom

and Max were born six weeks early by Caesarian Section, Tom

weighing in at 4lb 15lb and Max at 6lb 4½oz.

"For the first eight weeks especially, it's normal for any

parent to be constantly busy with the baby, but even more so

with two," she says.

"At night, when Lee came home from work, we had no time for

meals, so we were living off takeaways. During the daytime,

while I was at home on my own, I'd be having crisps, chocolate,

anything that was within easy reach. Then I stopped

breastfeeding and the weight started really piling on.

"The first signs something wasn't right was that my trousers

were becoming tighter. At first I refused to go up a size, but

when I couldn't fasten them any longer I had to give in.

"Suddenly, I felt fat and frumpy. I thought, 'Right, I'm

going to have to do something about this'.

"That's when I started going to WeightWatchers in June with

my mother-in-law Lorraine."

So what about this sponsored skydive?

"Lee and I are very aware of how lucky we are to have both

babies," she adds. "So when the leaflet about it arrived

through my door, I knew it was something I'd like to do."

Karen attends Longton WeightWatchers classes. For

information, call class leader Stephanie McMorrow on 01782

641474 or 07919 047269.