A woman from Worcester Park who lost a remarkable 11.5st in a year is half the woman she once was.

Luciana Velli-Smith, 45, weighed 23st in November 2010.

However, she managed to halve her body weight and celebrated Christmas 2011 weighing an incredible 11.5st.

The mum of three was always “big and proud”, but when she saw a picture of herself she made the life-changing decision to lose weight.

She said: “It wasn’t that I didn’t like what I saw but I was shocked at the size I had reached.

“I started to think that I may start to get health issues relating to being overweight, like diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, and that frightened me into doing something about it.”

To begin with, she tried a drastic starvation diet and dropped 4.5st.

However, when her energy levels plummeted and her hair began to fall out she realised this was not a healthy way to lose weight and changed her ways.

She said: “I’m half Italian, half Irish and food is the centre of our life.

“I knew I couldn’t count calories or points and I had to be able to eat chocolate.”

She looked around for the best possible plan that could work for her and her family and came across Slimming World.

When she first attended the group she refused to believe it was possible to eat pasta and potatoes and lose weight at the same time.

However, Slimming World’s weight loss support system worked so well for Ms Velli-Smith that she now runs her own groups in Worcester Park on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

For more information about the Slimming World groups call Luciana Velli-Smith on 020 8330 6601 or 0740 3348686.