Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
When I was bigger I couldn’t imagine ever finding love and felt resigned to dying alone
Phil sheds 21st and meets his dream girl
A LONELY civil servant who feared he would die alone because of his weight has lost an incredible 21 stone – and found love.
Phil Kayes, 47, who lived on takeaways and three pints of milk a day, was warned by doctors he would be “lucky to see 40”.
He said he was scared of dying in his sleep and his body being left trapped on the third floor of his parents’ home.
“I’d avoid gatherings like parties and weddings because I just felt so uncomfortable,” he said. “I knew I wouldn’t fit into a plane seat so I never travelled, even though I really wanted to.
“Apart from my job as a civil servant, I didn’t really do anything except hide away and eat. It was a very lonely time.”
But he has turned his life around and has been named Slimming World’s Greatest Loser 2020 after slimming from 37st 2½lb to 15st 6lb in just three years.
He said after losing weight he met the “love of his life” Nicole Mulholland in 2018.
Phil, who is 6ft 3in, said: “By far the best thing that has happened to me since losing weight is meeting Nicole. When I was bigger I couldn’t imagine ever finding love and felt resigned to dying alone.
“We’ve moved in together, swam in the Mediterranean Sea, been on a walking tour of Berlin and I’ve learned to drive.
“There are lots more adventures we want to tick off and for the first time in a long time, I’m excited about the future.”
Recently he was “knocked off his feet” by what was thought to be Covid-19, and he is not sure he would have survived if he had not lost weight.
“It was a timely reminder of how important my health is,” he said.
Phil, of Bangor, County Down, realised he had to get healthy when his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He said: “She died in October 2017, by which point I’d lost 5st. She’d be really proud if she could see me more than 21st lighter. It’s a completely different life to the one I had – one that is full of opportunities, friends and adventures.”