Cooking is a joy after scare led to a lifestyle change

IT'S A familiar story – after the children have gone and you're left to your own devices, it can be difficult to eat healthily.

It can be far easier instead to rely on the microwave and convenience foods than to cook a meal for one.

That's what happened to 72-year-old Brenda Harper. Her third husband Ron died 21 years previously. Meanwhile her four children were grown up and had started families of their own.

"I was by myself so much of the time I just couldn't be bothered to cook," says Brenda, of The Furlong, Yarnfield.

"My second husband Max died of emphysema and I lost Ron to Myeloma after we were married for only five years.

"It became too much trouble to put the oven on when there was just me, so I used to eat lots of ready meals and Pot Noodles.

"A friend of mine actually had to ask one of my sons to have a word with me because of my bad eating habits."

Growing up in London Road, Stoke, Brenda was a slim young woman, but began to notice the pounds creeping on after she had children.

She wasn't to realise it at the time, but Brenda was to face a 50-year struggle with her weight.

"I started to notice I was putting on weight after I had my second child," she says. "I'd have periods of dieting and my weight fluctuated up and down but it never lasted. In fact I tried a weight loss class about 30 years ago but I didn't stick to it."

As well as being a mum, Brenda had a busy working life. She started out as a mould runner in the pottery industry before becoming a cleaner at Standon Hall Orthopaedic Hospital and eventually an auxiliary nurse.

Brenda, who now has seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, only retired from her final job as a carer in Stafford, two years ago.

It should have given her chance to rest, but a visit to her doctor revealed she had high cholesterol.

"I knew I was getting heavy because I was having trouble with my breathing," she says. "If I was walking for any length and somebody stopped me, I'd have to wait to catch my breath again.

"The doctor did a blood test to check my cholesterol in July last year. He told me it was too high. He said, 'I'm sorry there's no other way of telling you. You're in for a heart attack or a stroke'."

Within a week of being dealt this devastating news, Brenda had signed up to a Slimming World class based at the Lawn Tennis Club in Stone.

Brenda had avoided weighing herself up to that point, and instead always judged herself on the size of her clothes. At her heaviest she reached a size 22-24.

When she finally stepped on the scales she weighed 13st 9 lbs.

"It was a wake-up call," she says. "When the doctor told me about the cholesterol, I just sat there staring – I was so shocked."

That was last July. Now Brenda keeps in shape with a weekly exercise group and has lost over three-and-a-half stones.

Although she's been told her cholesterol is likely to have a genetic cause and has been placed on medication, she doesn't regret changing her lifestyle.

But best of all is her new-found love of food.

"I don't regret it at all because I don't want to go back to how I was eating before," she says.

"I can't believe how much I've changed. I cook every day now and enjoy looking in recipe books."

Kay Rowley, who runs the Slimming World class attended by Brenda, says: "She's a real inspiration to the rest of the group because she's taken all the changes to her lifestyle on board.

"As well as being committed to her weight loss, she's a lovely person."

"I feel absolutely great," adds Brenda. "I can walk really fast and I don't have problems with my breathing any more.

"You're never too old to make changes," she adds, "and I'm a good example of that. I'd advise anybody in a similar situation to go for it."

For more information about Kay Rowley's Slimming World classes, call 01782 250880.