A mum-of-two ‘sugar addict’ has shed an incredible 20 stone after being given just four weeks to live because of her weight.
Suzanne Evans was over 31 stone and had been in a wheelchair for six years, unable to walk more than a few steps due to her size, when she got the shocking news.
Doctors told her that her kidneys and liver were shutting down and her heart was under near-unbearable strain – and estimated she had just four weeks left to live due to imminent organ failure.
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The 40-year-old knew something had to change – and fast.
“I was terrified,” Suzanne, from Hereford, told Need To Know.
“When you look in the doctor’s eyes and see they’re scared, you know you’re in trouble.
“It was the worst feeling and I was in the worst place.
“I didn’t want to be 31 stone.
“Doctors said I was so ill because of my weight, but they didn’t have faith in me that I would fight so hard to lose the weight.
“They thought the damage had been done.”
Suzanne’s health was in serious decline in 2018, with her being “rushed into hospital every other week” for a year.
“Every single part of my body radiated pain.
“I could hardly breathe or move without excruciating pain.
The mum was terrified by the prospect of dying – with her sons just 10 and 13 at the time.
She added: “I recorded videos for them to watch if I wasn’t there any more.
“It was emotional.
“But I was determined to lose weight and improve my health for them.”
After losing her dad, Tony, when he died in hospital, she was determined not to have the same outcome, and signed herself out in February 2019.
Upon coming home, Suzanne was determined to turn things around for sons Gethin, now 19, and 16-year-old Evan.
The mum had tried diets in the past but had always reverted to binge eating.
Suzanne said: “My weight gain started after my father died unexpectedly when I was pregnant in 2008.
“I comfort ate and then suffered post natal depression after giving birth.
“I became addicted to sugar – I would just eat anything sweet.
“My mum eventually became my carer and I became wheelchair bound in 2014.
“Being 31 stone, I’d eat all day all night.
“There was always something in my hand.
“I would have whatever I could get my hands on.
“I had drawers by my bedside full of sweets and crisps and chocolates.
“Even if I woke up in the night, I would gorge on them.”
But the stark warning from doctors proved to be the push Suzanne needed to, once and for all, drop the weight.
She followed the Slimming World plan, which puts an emphasis on whole foods.
Just one week into her weight loss journey, she had dropped a stone, and by the end of her first month she was two-and-a-half stone lighter.
But it wasn’t all easy.
Suzanne said: “I had the shakes from the sugar withdrawal.
“I’d had 11 years of overeating, but I had hope at last.
“I felt so proud.
“I really was fighting for my life.
“I started incorporating walking into my daily routine.
“Just a few steps at first until I could do more.
“Eventually I was able to take the dog for a walk and it felt great.
“My doctor cried a year later when I walked into the surgery.
“It was the first time they’d seen me walk in a long time.”
Now, Suzanne has lost an incredible 20 stone and weighs 11st 4lbs.
She is careful to maintain her svelte size, having two healthy meals a day including overnight oats with fruit, and a chicken stir fry for dinner.
Suzanne added: “People have noticed my weight loss and ask me what I have done to lose so much weight.
“I tell them it is all down to determination, willpower and Slimming World.
“They ask me what else I did and the answer is nothing.
“I just made the decision to change my life and live.
“I am so grateful to Slimming World because their food plan saved my life.
“And I am so proud of myself for making it happen.”
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