‘I used a Zimmer frame: now I’m loving life’
WHEN mum-of-four Lucy Humphreys broke her ankle she was horrified to find she was too fat for crutches – and had to use a Zimmer frame instead.
The 40-year-old was desperate to take the weight off her painful leg after falling off a friend’s front doorstep but says: “I couldn’t use them because I was just too big.
“I tried to use crutches to get around a bit after the break but, at just over 20 stones, it was impossible for me to support or lift myself, so I was given a Zimmer frame instead!”
The final straw came when partner Karl offered to push Lucy around in a wheelchair.
“And that was when I knew I had to do something. I was immobile for three months due to something simple like a broken ankle because I was just too heavy.
“Plus, I knew, if I was honest, that I wouldn’t even have hurt myself so badly from such a straightforward fall in the first place if I wasn’t as big as I was.”
Now Lucy, from Rainhill, has shed more than half her bodyweight and lost a staggering eight dress sizes, shrinking from a massive size 28 to a stunning size 12.
“And I feel amazing, both physically and mentally. I’m more confident, I can do more – and I have spared my children the embarrassment of being the biggest mum in the playground,” she says.
“My only regret now is that I didn’t do it sooner.”
Lucy has always been a yo-yo dieter, but it was after children, Liam, 15; Niamh, 12, and twins Mikey and ● Ewan, that the weight began to pile on again.
“I took care of what the children ate but we never sat down for meals together as a family and, instead of eating proper meals, I just snacked all day.
“I’d have toast with loads of butter for breakfast, then I’d constantly graze on crisps, bread and biscuits. I wouldn’t have lunch.
“I’m a chocoholic too so I would always have a lot of chocolate and I liked my glasses of wine.”
As she gained more and more weight, Lucy became more and more unhappy: “I used to worry about going to restaurants and fitting in chairs and going on planes was mortifying, struggling with the seat belt and hoping and praying it would fasten. “Theme parks caused me a nightmare too with worries that I wouldn’t be able to close the seatbelt or fit in the seat. I would avoid the humiliation at all costs. I missed out on so much with my family.”
Armed with a new determination Lucy joined WeightWatchers in 2013.
“It’s daunting knowing you need to lose half your body weight, so I took it a day at a time, a half-stone or a stone at a time. It was the only way I could do it.
“This year on the plane I felt so smug thinking of how much I used to struggle and how tightly I could pull the belt in now. And where clothes shopping used to be a nightmare, now I love dressing up and trying different styles.
“My children say I’m like a different person, lots happier.
“I always said I didn’t want to be 40 and fat – and I’m not.
“I’m loving life and I’m finally loving myself.”