Daily Express

Supermarke­t set for big jump in sales

- By Helene Perkins

AS one of the country’s biggest supermarke­ts it has helped shape the way we shop, writes

John Reynolds.

Now Tesco is hoping to add a real bounce to sales. It is fi tting its stores with trampoline- inspired aisles to help customers reach items on the top shelves.

Daisy O’Farllop, of Tesco, said it was a practical and fun way to help customers.

Tesco has been testing the concept and is now introducin­g the idea to its 3,600 stores.

The trampoline­s will be fi tted to the fl oor, running alongside the shelves, leaving space in the middle of the aisle for trolleys.

Towie’s Lucy Mecklenbur­gh, pictured right, has used her experience on the BBC’s gymnastics show Tumble to work with the supermarke­t to develop the trampoline­s.

She said: “I think people will jump at the chance to use them.”

A TEENAGE anorexic whose weight plummeted to just five stone has fought back by setting up a catering firm.

Faith March was living off coffee when her weight dropped to its lowest level a year ago.

The 18- year- old, from Maldon, Essex, was found collapsed in her bathroom by her boyfriend and her family feared she would die.

They urged her to get help and following treatment at Priory Hospital, in Chelmsford, she now weighs more than eight stone.

Faith said setting up patisserie business Whisk of Faith helped her on the road to recovery.

She said: “This business has helped me to get out of a massive hole. If I’m honest, it was a hole I never thought I would get out of. It just seemed like a never- ending cycle of problems.”

Faith said she had suffered health problems that had baffled doctors for most of her life.

Then when she was 14 it emerged that her colon had collapsed and she had surgery to insert a stent into her stomach.

The surgery helped at first but then her eating problems worsened.

Surviving

Faith said: “My boyfriend, mum and dad noticed I had stopped eating again. I was just surviving on coffee.

“I was doing a cookery course as well as working part time at a pub so I was surrounded by food but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat anything.

“My boss told me to take some time out because it was clear I wasn’t 100 per cent, so I went to the doctors and that is when I was told I had anorexia.

“I knew I always had problems with food but to actually be diagnosed as anorexic just played havoc with my mind.

“I tried to combat it in so many ways that I look back on now and think, ‘ What was I doing?’ such as just staying in bed, working out at the gym all the time and just generally not accepting help.”

Faith realised she had to act when she collapsed.

She said: “After one long day working from 11am until 10pm at the pub in which I hadn’t eaten, my boyfriend found me collapsed on the bathroom floor. He said I couldn’t go back there as I was too unwell.

“My family told me they thought I would die if I carried on working in that environmen­t.”

Faith quit her job and recuperate­d at home. She said: “I always wanted my own business so mum told me to maybe do some work for myself while I get better.

“I had been at cooking college and it was something I wanted to do for a living, so I started doing cakes and getting people ordering from me and it has just grown from there.”

Faith’s mother Heather has now quit her job as a Samaritan at Chelmsford Prison to help.

Faith said: “I still have checkups twice a week but I’m weighing just over eight stone now.

“My parents have been so supportive by letting me run the business from home and my boyfriend has been a tower of strength.

“I still have bad days when I barely eat but as a result of starting the business I’m eating a lot more and worrying a lot less.”

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 ?? Picture: MOIRA GARDNER/ CATERS ?? Faith, 18, opened up a patisserie and began to pile on the pounds
Picture: MOIRA GARDNER/ CATERS Faith, 18, opened up a patisserie and began to pile on the pounds

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