Super Shropshire slimmer Holliejoe sheds 10 stone

Holliejoe Taylor said she did it all without the help of weight loss groups or fad diets – and it came about by turning family problems into something positive.

The 18-year-old said her weight loss started not as something deliberate but as a response to the stress of her parents splitting up in October last year.

But she grasped the opportunity to do something about her weight and took control, making sure she started to eat healthily.

Between November last year and now she has shrunk from 24 stone to 14.

Hollyjoe, a mobile carer from Much Wenlock, said: "I was losing weight because I was stressed out, but I liked my new size.

"I liked it when I tried to find clothes in my wardrobe and realised that they wouldn't fit any more – and walking into shops and realising that it wasn't the case that I couldn't buy anything any more.

"I didn't have to walk out making up some random nonsense that 'Oh, I just didn't like the tops' or something.

"So I resumed healthy eating and tried to carry it on."

She said she had put up with a lot of cruel comments from fellow pupils when she attended William Brookes School in Much Wenlock when she was younger.

"I was bullied at school and I wanted to show them what I could do," she said.

"It feels absolutely amazing. I don't go out and feel like people are looking at me because I'm overweight any more, and I love taking my next door neighbour's children to the park and not feeling out of breath despite it being two minutes away."

But she said she didn't want to go overboard and simply wanted to maintain her current size, and look after her health.

"I don't want to lose any more weight now, but I do want to tone up my skin from where it's been lost," she said.