Emily steps out to lose weight and gain pounds
LOCKDOWN and a personal fitness challenge not only led Emily Slinger to lose three stone - it gave her more control of her health.
Her type 1 diabetes is likely to be hereditary, as her mum has also just been diagnosed, and in March, before lockdown, she would get a taxi a few blocks to her home.
In three months, the Haslingden High School science technician completed 1.7 million steps - the equivalent of walking from John O’Groats to Land’s End - raising £235 for Diabetes UK.
On Sunday she walked the virtual Manchester marathon from Fleetwood to Lytham and back to Blackpool - 26.2 miles.
Emily, who lives in
Accrington and has worked at the school for four years, said: “I used to actively avoid sport and exercise of any kind - now I am climbing hills. The week before the virtual marathon, I walked 17 miles taking in Rivington Pike, Two Lads and Winter Hill.”
Walkers were tasked to complete the 1m step challenge in three months, but by week seven Emily, 35, had already reached the target, and so just carried on. She said: “I have been diabetic since I was nine and on insulin. Now I have lowered my dosage and I have improved my blood sugars. Before I was obese, now I have lost three stones and I have a normal BMI [Body Mass Index]. I think to myself, ‘why did I not know how good walking was?’
“I lost my dad during lockdown and so I went through a pretty rough patch, it was good to be getting out and moving.”
Emily has a six-year-old son and was shielding for five months working from home, before returning to Haslingden High full-time in September - a changed person.