Foal plucked from river
A FOAL was saved by firefighters and the SSPCA from the River Clyde near Wishaw after it was spotted by a dogwalker. The foal was said to be unhurt after the ordeal. A TEACHER has gone from super-size to super-mum after shifting 10st of her body weight.
Alison Gemmell, 36, is half as big as she used to be, dropping from a size 22 to a size 10 in just over two years.
Not only that, but Alison, a music teacher at Glasgow’s Shawlands Academy has gone from a couch potato to a fitness fanatic – something that she never imagined possible.
The mum of one said that it was when she reached a massive 20st 9lbs that she knew she had to try to get her weight under control.
Alison said: “I was always on the large size as a child but my weight hadn’t really bothered me. Even as a teenager I was outgoing, I had a real love of fashion and I always had a good haircut, so people complimented me on how I looked.
“Although I was big, I was confident and there was a part of me that was defiant in that I thought people should like me just the way I am.”
Alarm bells only started ringing for Alison when she had daughter Isla, now seven, and realised that she wanted to be the best mum she could be and do every possible activity with her child.
She said: “I used to take Isla to the park when she was a toddler but I knew I could never go on a swing with her, never mind have a go on the flying fox. I was scared that I would break them.
“It was then that I thought I was doing myself a disservice because I was missing out. I wanted to be a healthy mum and be able to do everything with my child. I wanted to have more fun.”
Alison had actually managed to lose three stones before in 2007 but it wasn’t long after that she met her husband Robert. After a whirlwind romance, they got married and Alison’s weight began to creep up again.
Soon after the wedding, Alison visited her GP to tell her she wanted to come off the pill to have a baby.
Alison said: “She was a slim doctor and very negative. She told me that I could come off the pill but that I would probably find it very difficult to get pregnant.”
Alison left the consultation in tears. But a month later, the couple were celebrating when a pregnancy test confirmed she was expecting.
She said: “I always knew I was heavy but I was happy. I had a bit of a sickly pregnancy with Isla and was actually a lighter weight with Isla at nine months pregnant than I had been before.”
But Alison says her weight was destined to go back up because her love of eating always got the better of her.
After Isla was born, Alison suffered postnatal depression and her weight spiralled out of control.
She said: “I developed post-traumatic stress disorder because I’d had a really traumatic birth. Then, once we took her home, Isla wouldn’t breastfeed. Even feeding her a bottle was difficult and she would only drink one ounce of milk at a time.
“I felt like such a failure. I was very anxious and depressed. My GP put me