Life-changing transplant gave Emma a new start

BEING given a new kidney inspired Emma Roberts to take care of the "gift" she'd received – the gift of life.

Since then, the self-confessed "chocoholic" has shed more than five stones and is four dress sizes smaller.

And she is now helping to motivate others by becoming a Slimming World consultant.

"After having a kidney transplant I thought, 'Oh my God, somebody has given me my life back'," explains the 39-year-old, of Loring Terrace South, Porthill.

"I owed it to that person – my donor – to get my body as fit and healthy as I could.

"Since the transplant I'd been taking steroids, which don't increase your weight, but they do increase your appetite.

"I ate myself stupid – everything I could lay my hands on."

Emma, who has a partner, Clinton Ball, aged 36, and a son, Daniel Oakley, had a new kidney in April 2007 – five years after being put on the transplant list.

"I had more major surgery in August 2008 when I had one of my own kidneys removed," she says.

"Having a kidney removed is worse than having a kidney transplant, and I wasn't doing any exercise, so I had a very sedentary lifestyle."

Emma has battled with her weight since her late teens.

"I began going out boozing socially – living life too well and burning the candle at both ends," she recalls.

"As a student I enjoyed eating burgers, pies and lots of chocolate and crisps."

And while Emma confesses her weight "ballooned", she was still happy.

"When you're enjoying life, you don't really take stock of the situation and what you're eating could be doing to your health," she says

"I was probably about a size 14 then and weighed about 12-and-a-half stones, but I wasn't at my heaviest as a teenager."

It was around this time Emma met her former partner.

"I put on a lot of weight during my pregnancy because of fluid retention and had Daniel very premature at 27 weeks," she says.

"I have a condition called chronic pyelonephritis and over time the infections ate away at my kidneys."

Emma had an emergency caesarean, and while Daniel only weighed 1lb 9oz at birth, thankfully he was fine.

Emma and her former partner split up a couple of years later.

"All the time my health was deteriorating," says Emma, "culminating in me having to go on renal dialysis in November 2001."

But the upside of dialysis was finding love with Clinton, a clinical support worker at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

Emma started Slimming World classes in November 2008, weighing 14 stones and seven-and-a-half pounds.

"I found it absolutely amazing. No food is banned, it's just everything in moderation," she says

"And you can eat lots and lots of what we call 'free food', basically fruit, vegetables and salad, and it still fills you up."

Emma, who is still taking steroids, is now a size 10 and weighs nine stones and two pounds.

And she has now started running her own Slimming World classes in Newcastle.

"I feel so much better, and my partner and my son have supported me all the way. I'm a very lucky girl," she says.

Emma runs Slimming World classes at Higherland Methodist Church, in Newcastle, every Wednesday at 9.30am, 5.30pm and 7pm. Call her on 01782 615385 or 07961 590334.