HEALTH SCARE

Speaking about why she lost the weight before, she told Woman’s Own, ‘I had a medical and the doctor did say you’ve got a chance of getting diabetes if you don’t lose some weight. It really shocked me. I’m 60 and my grandchildren [Lila, six, and two-year-old Betsy] are still really young, so I just want to be around for their proms and their weddings.

‘It’s done me good to cut it out [booze].’

At the beginning of her weight-loss journey, Linda confessed she used to eat the sugary equivalent of 100 doughnuts every month – thanks to her love of wine in the evening. But just days into her overhaul, Linda said, ‘Mark weighed me, because I didn’t want to know how much I weighed. I still don’t know how much I weigh but I’ve lost 6-7lb. The wine belly’s gone down quite a lot.’

But even cutting out wine for the sake of her health wasn’t without its struggles. Earlier this year Linda opened up about how a sleeping tablet caused her to have a ‘meltdown’. She said, ‘I used to take a tablet to help me sleep every night and when I came off the wine, I upped the tablet and then I got concerned about taking the tablet, so I went to see somebody about it and they gave me a tablet. I had a really bad reaction to it. I had a proper meltdown.’

Although she’s fine now, Linda has had every reason to relax her diet after such a stressful time.