I’m half the man I used to be...and it’s saved my life
A GRANDFATHER who was so overweight he was “knocking on death’s door” shed half his 28-stone body weight after being shamed on a plane.
Tony Westaway, 58, was travelling to Ireland with his wife Gail in 2015. He was told he was too fat for the seat he had booked and had to walk down the aisle to another one.
“I had to ask for a seatbelt extender to go around my middle,” Mr Westaway said.
“We’d paid extra to sit in the emergency exit aisle so I’d have more leg room.
“But the cabin crew explained you couldn’t sit there if you needed an extension belt.”
He was so embarrassed he joined a slimming club as soon as he returned and has now been named Slimming World’s Man of the Year after reaching his target weight of 13st 7lb.
His doctor told him the transformation has added 20 years to his life.
Mr Westaway, of Woodbury Salterton, near Exeter, ditched his pasties, pies and beer for pasta, chicken breast and fatfree yogurts with fruit.
In his first week he lost a Tony had weighed 28st. After a diet, he now weighs under 14st. stone, then steadily lost more weight each week after that.
“We thought the scales were broken at first,” he said.
He had heart problems, was borderline Type 2 diabetic and struggled to walk.
Now he has joined a gym, swims and cycles and is fit enough to work full-time as a self-employed gardener again.
“Losing the weight didn’t just change my life, it saved my life,” he said. “I really was knocking on death’s door.”